timestamp column behavior

[Ira Holtzer]

Hi,

Transaction data is stored to a DB. The transactions table has a TIMESTAMP column (transaction_ts) into which data is stored using this snippet (out of some larger SP):

INSERT INTO currency_transactions (transaction_type,
user_id,
game_type,
currency_type,
transaction_amount,
optional_transaction_amount,
transaction_balance,
transaction_status,
transaction_ts)
VALUES(tranType,
userId,
0,
currType,
currAmmount,
currCost,
userBalance,
1,
UTC_TIMESTAMP());

Connecting with workbench I performs the following:

SET @@session.time_zone='+00:00';
select @@time_zone;
> +00:00

select utc_timestamp();
> 2010-11-17 15:08:48

and yet when selecting data that just this instant was inserted via the above procedure I will get timestamps that are one hour before UTC. I.e. in our example here I'm getting a transaction that occurred at 2010-11-17 14:08:40.

I've accounted for display offset by session time_zone (at least I think that's what I did). I've accounted for storage format since UTC_TIMESTAMP() should not modify value in any way depending on server/session timezone.

How is this possible? What am I failing to consider?

Thanks,
DB