PowerStore: Health Checks detects high time skew on Nodes and BMC

Summary: PowerStore: Health Checks detects high time skew on Nodes and BMC.

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Symptoms

Various services in PowerStore can detect this issue.

The issue may be detected and reported as follows:

Alert raised by PowerDoctor RxDefinition:
RxDefinition-Alert-TimeSkewCheck.png

Running a System Check using PowerStore Manager (UI) with the Run Upgrade Extensions option:
System Check may display a message Too high time skew on Nodes and BMC.
Dell EMC PowerStore
Tip: The Profile field displays Upgrade Extensions when the Run Upgrade Extensions option is used to perform a System Check.
Running a System Check using PowerStore Manager (UI) with the Run System Check option:
System Check may display a message Too high time skew on Nodes and BMC. 
Dell EMC PowerStore UI Monitoring -> SYSTEM CHECKS  
Tip: The Profile field displays Service Engagement when the Run System Check option is used to perform a System Check.
Running the System Health Service Script (svc_health_check) using an SSH connection:
System Health service script may display a message Too high time skew on Nodes and BMC. 
$ svc_health_check run -rhc time_skew_check -p Upgrade_Extensions
Name                          Location Status     Description
Time skew Check               node_a   FAILED     Too high time skew on Nodes and BMC (KB#000196199)

Cause

The above message indicates that there is an unsupported large time skew between nodes or between components of the node.
When this issue exists, the correct functioning of the system as a whole may be impaired including software updates.

Resolution

Self-Service Action:

High level:

  • SSH to the appliance service shell 
  • Validate NTP configuration is valid and healthy 
  • Run the "svc_ntp_ctl --set" command to force sync the appliance to NTP
  • If needed repeat on peer node using "svc_ssh_peer"

For more information about accessing and using the service shell, see the PowerStore Service Scripts Guide

 

Run the svc_ntp_ctl command to display the current NTP configuration and verify that there are NTP servers configured, ntpd state is active and the status of NTP is Normal synchronized state.
 

[SVC:service@5V70643-B user]$ svc_ntp_ctl
   INFO: Cluster is configured to use the following NTP servers: AA.BBB.CCC.DDD, AA.BBB.EEE.FFF
   INFO: Node B current date and time is: 2023-06-28 17:44:40.883230
   INFO: Node B relies on the ntpd service for time synchronization.
   INFO: Node B: service ntpd state: [active]
   INFO: Node B has status of NTP: Normal synchronized state
   INFO: Node B: Synchronization detail info: [associd=0 status=0615 leap_none, sync_ntp, 1 event, clock_sync,version="ntpd 4.2.8p13@1.3847-o Tue Jan 18 21:20:40 UTC 2022 (1)",processor="x86_64",system="Linux/5.3.18-24.134.1.dell.1679670291276419912-default", leap=00,stratum=3, precision=-24, rootdelay=51.030, rootdisp=69.004,refid=10.241.253.251,reftime=e846ea51.e96bd587  Wed, Jun 28 2023 17:20:17.911,clock=e846f009.26afe4a4  Wed, Jun 28 2023 17:44:41.151, peer=53167,tc=10, mintc=3, offset=0.474707, frequency=38.049, sys_jitter=8.730238,clk_jitter=1.109, clk_wander=0.139]
    INFO: Node A current date and time is: 2023-06-28 17:44:43.961124
   INFO: Node A relies on the ntpd service for time synchronization.
   INFO: Node A: service ntpd state: [active]
   INFO: Node A has status of NTP: Normal synchronized state
   INFO: Node A: Synchronization detail info: [associd=0 status=0618 leap_none, sync_ntp, 1 event, no_sys_peer,version="ntpd 4.2.8p13@1.3847-o Tue Jan 18 21:20:40 UTC 2022 (1)",processor="x86_64",system="Linux/5.3.18-24.134.1.dell.1679670291276419912-default", leap=00,stratum=3, precision=-24, rootdelay=51.872, rootdisp=74.096,refid=10.241.253.250,reftime=e846ed57.949d8c7d  Wed, Jun 28 2023 17:33:11.580,clock=e846f00c.315f7279  Wed, Jun 28 2023 17:44:44.192, peer=48283,tc=10, mintc=3, offset=-0.758737, frequency=37.197, sys_jitter=8.352620,clk_jitter=0.757, clk_wander=0.090]


Confirm that the NTP IP addresses displayed are the correct/active NTP servers for the PowerStore environment.

Run the svc_ntp_ctl --set command to synchronize the node’s time to the first available active NTP server or run the svc_ntp_ctl --set --server <ip address of NTP server> command to specify the IP address of the NTP server to synchronize with.

[SVC:service@5V70643-B user]$ svc_ntp_ctl --set
   INFO: Cluster is configured to use the following NTP servers: AA.BBB.CCC.DDD, AA.BBB.EEE.FFF
   INFO: Node B ntpd service: inactive
   INFO: Node B: 28 Jun 17:52:34 ntpd[79343]: ntpd: time slew -0.006178 sntpd: time slew -0.006178s
   INFO: Node B: ntpd service: active
   INFO: Node A ntpd service: inactive
   INFO: Node A: 28 Jun 17:52:45 ntpd[40630]: ntpd: time slew -0.000542 sntpd: time slew -0.000542s
   INFO: Node A: ntpd service: active


OR
 

[SVC:service@5V70643-B user]$ svc_ntp_ctl --set --server  AA.BBB.EEE.FFF
   INFO: Node B ntpd service: inactive
   INFO: Node B: 28 Jun 17:55:28 ntpd[87755]: ntpd: time slew -0.000012 sntpd: time slew -0.000012s
   INFO: Node B: ntpd service: active
   INFO: Node A ntpd service: inactive
   INFO: Node A: 28 Jun 17:55:37 ntpd[53134]: ntpd: time slew -0.000094 sntpd: time slew -0.000094s
   INFO: Node A: ntpd service: active


If the issue was found by System Check (or similar service), once issue is resolved, re-run this service.

If the issue was identified by RxDefinition, once issue is resolved, the alert will be cleared automatically during the next execution of this RxDefinition check.
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If the issue remains, Contact Dell Technical Support or your Authorized Service Representative, and quote this knowledge base article ID.

Additional Information

In cases of a skew between nodes of a multi appliance cluster and the ntp server, an alert is raised. See PowerStore Alerts: Time difference between the node and the following available NTP servers is huge.

Affected Products

PowerStore
Article Properties
Article Number: 000196199
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 18 Nov 2025
Version:  12
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