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Dell Chassis Management Controller Version 3.0 for Dell EMC PowerEdge VRTX User's Guide

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Troubleshooting Network Time Protocol Errors

After configuring CMC to synchronize the clock with a remote time server over the network, it may take 2-3 minutes before a change in the date and time occurs. If after this time there is still no change, it may be necessary to troubleshoot a problem. CMC may not be able to synchronize the clock for the following reasons:

  • Problem with the Network Time Protocol (NTP) Server 1, NTP Server 2, and NTP Server 3 settings.
  • Invalid host name or IP address may have been accidentally entered.
  • Network connectivity problem that prevents CMC from communicating with any of the configured NTP servers.
  • DNS problem, preventing any of the NTP server host names from being resolved.
To troubleshoot the NTP–related problems, check the information in the CMC trace log. This log contains an error message for NTP related failures. If CMC is not able to synchronize with any of the configured remote NTP servers, then CMC time is synchronized to the local system clock and the trace log contains an entry similar to the following:
Jan 8 20:02:40 cmc ntpd[1423]: synchronized to LOCAL(0), stratum 10
You can also check the ntpd status by typing the following racadm command:
racadm getractime –n

The output of this command contains detailed NTP statistics that may be useful in debugging the problem.

If you attempt to configure a Windows-based NTP server, it may help to increase the MaxDist parameter for ntpd. Before changing this parameter, understand all the implications, since the default setting must be large enough to work with most NTP servers.

To modify the parameter, type the following command:
racadm config –g cfgRemoteHosts –o cfgRhostsNtpMaxDist 32

After making the change, disable NTP, wait for 5-10 seconds, then enable NTP again:

NOTE NTP may take an additional three minutes to synchronize again.
To disable NTP, type: 
racadm config –g cfgRemoteHosts –o cfgRhostsNtpEnable 0
To enable NTP, type: 
racadm config –g cfgRemoteHosts –o cfgRhostsNtpEnable 1

If the NTP servers are configured correctly and this entry is present in the trace log, then this confirms that CMC is not able to synchronize with any of the configured NTP servers.

If the NTP server IP address is not configured, you may see a trace log entry similar to the following:
Jan 8 19:59:24 cmc ntpd[1423]: Cannot find existing interface for address 1.2.3.4 Jan 8 19:59:24 cmc ntpd[1423]: configuration of 1.2.3.4 failed
If an NTP server setting was configured with an invalid host name, you may see a trace log entry as follows:
Aug 21 14:34:27 cmc ntpd_initres[1298]: host name not found: blabla Aug 21 14:34:27 cmc ntpd_initres[1298]: couldn't resolve `blabla', giving up on it

For information on how to enter the gettracelog command to review the trace log using the CMC Web interface, see Using Diagnostic Console.

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