Yes. I realized the issue about the date pattern. I changed it to
yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss ZBut i still get the same dateparsefailure error.
But that pattern also doesn't match "2017-02-16 06:52:31.5999". I'd try yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss,SSSS.
Is there anyway i can simply remove the millisecs or microsecs?
Sure, you can use the mutate filter's gsub option.
Re: the timezone, i am trying to set Central Standard Time. How would i set the timezone as you suggested so it won't assume to be in local time?
I think a list of available timezone name are available via a link in the docs. I suspect that timezone => "Etc/UTC" might work for you.