Dell Storage Manager 2020 R1 Administrator's Guide

Managing the System Time

Setting the system time accurately is critical for the proper functioning of the system. Setting the system time enables:

• Windows clients to mount the file system
• Scheduled activities, such as snapshot and replication tasks, to occur at the appropriate time
• The correct time to be recorded in the Event Log
• Time synchronization between the Active Directory authentication server and the FluidFS cluster, which is necessary for Active Directory authentication

You can set the system time using either of the following options:

• Manually set the time – Manually set the time for the FluidFS cluster.
• Automatically synchronize the time with an NTP server – Network Time Protocol (NTP) synchronizes clocks over a network. If the FluidFS cluster is part of a Windows network, the Active Directory server should serve as the NTP server. If the FluidFS cluster is not part of a Windows network, configure it to synchronize with a local NTP server (if such a server exists) or with an NTP server on the Internet.