The ME system uses Network Time Protocol (NTP), Version 4 (described in RFC 1305) to synchronize its clock with network clocks. Systems using NTP all set and maintain their internal clock to the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
Synchronized time across the network provides packet and event time stamps and security certificate validation. Because computer clocks drift a few seconds a day, networked systems can be out of synchronization. NTP uses time signals from accurate time sources on the Internet to ensure all systems are synchronized.
Each ME device has a real time clock that uses NTP to maintain accurate time. You can configure the ME as an NTP client and/or as an NTP server. An NTP server responds to NTP client requests, using either external Internet time sources or the time set manually via the CLI, depending on the configuration. An NTP client queries the configured time server at the specified interval.
Note:
The NTP client and server objects are located in different places in the CLI hierarchy. You configure the client within the box object and the server within the interface object.Opens the NTP client configuration object on the locally attached ME device, or opens the NTP client configuration object on the specified ME device in a cluster configuration.
admin: Enables or disables NTP client services on the local system.
Default: enabled
Values: enabled | disabled
Example: set admin disabled
server: Specifies the IP address of the NTP server. This is the address of the device that responds to this NTP client requests.
Enter the IP address in dotted decimal format or a host name.
Default: There is no default setting
Example: set server 192.168.10.10
poll-interval: Sets the poll interval for NTP updates in minutes. The interval is the number of minutes between NTP client requests to the NTP server.
Default: 10
Values: Min: 1 / Max: 1440
Example: set poll-interval 50
Opens the NTP server configuration object on the specified ME Ethernet or VLAN interface. When you enable NTP server functionality, the interface will respond to NTP client requests with its current time. To set the time on the box, do one of the following:
Use the clock action
Set the server as a client to an external Internet time server using the ntp-client object