How to set the NTP server on your Brocade Switch

This video will demonstrate the setting procedure of the Network Time Protocol (NTP) server on your Brocade switch.

Welcome to Dell Technologies, Connectix Brocade B series. How two series, how to set the NTP server in a Brocade switch reference bill knowledge base article number 011196. This video was created to demonstrate how to set the network time protocol server.

In a Brocade switch. This video presents the following. The principal or primary FCS switch connects to the NTP server and broadcasts time service updates to all switches in the fabric.

The other switches in the fabric automatically take their time from the principal or primary FCS switch. You can synchronize the local time of the principal or primary FCS switch to a maximum of eight external NTP servers.

All switches in the fabric, maintain the current NTP clock server value in non volatile memory. By default, this value is the local clock LCL of the principal or primary FCS switch.

Changes to the clock server value on the principle or primary FCS switch are propagated to all switches in the fabric. When to do this, when you want to keep current time in your sand, you should synchronize the local time of the principal or primary F CS switch with at least one external network time protocol server switches maintain the current date and time inside a battery backed real time clock circuit that receives the date and time from the fabrics.

Principal switch date and time are used for logging events. Switch operation does not depend on the date and time. A switch with an incorrect date and time value functions properly.

However, because the date and time are used for logging error detection and troubleshooting, you must set them correctly before you begin. The TS clock server command accepts multiple server addresses in IPV four IPV six or DNS name formats.

When multiple NTP server addresses are passed TSS clock server sets the first obtainable address as the active NTP server, the rest are stored as backup servers that can take over if the active NTP server fails the principal or primary FCS switch, synchronizes its time with the NTP server every 64 seconds, synchronizing the local time with an external source, connect to the switch and log in using an account assigned to the admin role.

Enter the command TSS clock server with NTP server IP list. In this syntax, NTP one is the IP address or DNS name of the first NTP server which the switch must be able to access. The second variable NTP two is the second NTP server and is optional. The upper end NTP one, NTP two is optional by default.

This value is LSCL which uses the local clock of the principal or primary FCS switch as the clock server note system time zone change will take effect at next reboot on chassis reboot, both CPS simultaneously synchronizing the local time with an external source. Enter the command TS clock server with NTP IP address list display the configured NTP servers.

When multiple NTP server addresses are passed TS clock server sets the first obtainable address as the active NTP server. The rest are stored as backup servers that can take over if the active NTP server fails check. If the TS switch parameter related with NTP configuration is added.

Setting the time zone interactively enter the command TS timezone interactive to list all of the time zones supported by the firmware. You are prompted to select a demo location, select a country location at the prompt, select the time zone regions. Enter one to confirm or two to restart the time zone selection again at any time.

Use control D to quit, use the date command to display the date. You can notice that time zone configured is eastern daylight time. If you want to change the time zone to us, central run the command TS time zone, us central time zone is now changed to central time. Use the following procedure to set the device date and time.

Refer to the following important notes. If you are unable to set the NTP configuration with the TS clock server command and get below error check. If the TS switch parameters related with NTP configuration was modified. In this case, both line parameters are defined as LCL which would indicate that it could not reach or communicate with the NTP server.

Check the IP filter show command and make sure port 123 is open. If these are open, verify that the user network team has the chassis. We also refer to it as logical IP address, both stand by CPI and active CPI IP on the network control list. Important notes. If virtual fabrics is enabled, the switch behavior is as follows.

It is not recommended to configure LOCL in the NTP server list, all default switches in the fabric can query the NTP server. If virtual fabrics is not enabled, only the principal or primary FCS switch can query the NTP server. The logical switches in a chassis get their clock information from the default logical switch and not from the principal or primary FCS switch.

Only the default switch in the chassis can update the hardware clock. The time zone setting has the following characteristics. Users can view the time zone settings however, only those with administrative permissions can set the time zones. The setting automatically adjusts for daylight savings time by default, all switches are set to Greenwich mean time.

If all switches in a fabric are in one time zone, it is possible for you to keep the time zone set up at the default setting time zone settings persist across fail over for high availability. Setting the time zone on any dual domain backbone has the following characteristics.

Updating the time zone on any switch updates the entire backbone. The time zone of the entire backbone is the time zone of switch zero. A switch running fabric, OS 7.4 0.0 or later can distribute the NTP server configuration to access gateway devices connected to the fabric.

However, access gateway devices cannot distribute the NTP configuration to other switches in the fabric. Refer to the following for more information Dell Knowledge Base article number 011196 Brocade fabric, OS administrators guide topics, network time, protocol, date and time settings and Brocade fabric OS command reference guide.

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