Hi - I have a server 2022. On the server there are files and directories from 2018. What is the server birth year?

how do you define "server birth year" ?

What kind of server? Running what version of what operating system? And what are you actually wanting to know, why?

Hi - 10x for you quick reply - HP on RHL - When I typed la-sa I got a list of files and directories. Some of them where from 2022 the year I bought the server but others were 2018. Where those 2018 files and directories come from? Shall I suspect that the server is an old version of 2018 and not new of 2022? Zvika Haifa Israel

Saying "HP on RHL" is near meaningless....which "HP" are you talking about? What version of RHEL?? Have you contacted Red Hat support, since you're using RHEL, you're paying for it, right?? And looking at file dates is pointless, since there are lots of files on any OS that haven't changed in years, with updates only occurring on some pieces of things. You can run "cat /etc/*release*" and see what it says, but again, without knowing what you want/paid for, how can we tell you if it's up to date???

For all we know, you bought a server that's supposed to have RHEL 7 on it.

you can set time/date on any file to anything, it is not really useful. Probably it (this date) contains the creation time, but probably it is just the time when it was installed or when the package/release was created or the software was built. Who knows (without details)?

Hi - HPE Proliant ML30G10 RHL 2021

Want to know the server birth year, look at the serial number sticker and type it in to the manufacturers support site.

I still don't really understand what does it mean, but it looks like it is not really important.

Totally agree!

If you just need a number, you might try . All stats relate to the install of the OS AT BEST! If you need the machine date you need to look into the hardware information.

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Great, so AGAIN, have you contacted Red Hat support for help, and asked them about it?? And there is no 'RHL 2021'...no idea what you mean. AGAIN, you were given a command to run that would tell you more...have you done it??

The default time shown for a file is last modification time. Probably quite a few files on a new system have not been modified since 2018. If they have not been modified, why change the date?

okay... let me put it this way...
a baby is born Jan 1st 2022...
when old enough the child starts going to school
eventually the child learns history (you know all the stuff that happened before child was born).

You can think of this as something similar.

You purchased a machine today... but the software (OS including) could have been created before server was actually manufactured.
This does not mean server is OLD, just the software loaded on it was created before server was created. (like history records "loaded" on us humans minds)

There is no definition of "birth year" that would make the question answerable.