Troubleshooting - NTP server connectivity

ECDN Server NTP Configuration

ECDN servers require connectivity to NTP server(s) to synchronize their clocks. When the ECDN server clocks go out of sync by more than 5 minutes, ECDN operations team will no longer have the ability to remotely login and help troubleshoot the issue, even if the "Remote assistance" checkbox setting has been enabled.

While installing ECDN servers, you may use:

• Local NTP servers available within your organization, or
• Public NTP servers like:
  • 0.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org
  • 1.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org
  • 2.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org

If you use public NTP servers, then you also need to update the corporate firewall configuration to allow outbound UDP traffic on port 123, to these destinations.

How to Confirm NTP Settings

1. Login to the ECDN server. Default credentials are described on the Support & Downloads page.
2. On the shell command line enter: ntpq -p

When Firewall Ports Are Sufficiently Opened to Allow NTP Traffic

Output will look like:

Note the "refid" column value will be ".POOL.".

     remote           refid      st t when poll reach   delay   offset  jitter
==============================================================================
 0.ubuntu.pool.n .POOL.          16 p    -   64    0    0.000    0.000   0.004
 1.ubuntu.pool.n .POOL.          16 p    -   64    0    0.000    0.000   0.004
 2.ubuntu.pool.n .POOL.          16 p    -   64    0    0.000    0.000   0.004
 3.ubuntu.pool.n .POOL.          16 p    -   64    0    0.000    0.000   0.004
 ntp.ubuntu.com  .POOL.          16 p    -   64    0    0.000    0.000   0.004

When Firewall Blocks the NTP Traffic

The command output will look like:

Note, the "refid" column value ".INIT." which indicates lack of connectivity to the public NTP server.

     remote           refid      st t when poll reach   delay   offset  jitter
==============================================================================
 clock.sjc.he.ne .INIT.          16 u    - 1024    0    0.000    0.000   0.000
 turing.clpo.inf .INIT.          16 u    - 1024    0    0.000    0.000   0.000
 soft-sea-01.ser .INIT.          16 u    - 1024    0    0.000    0.000   0.000

Updating NTP Server Settings

Please follow up with your local network administrator to update the firewall settings, or get information about what NTP servers may be available within your organization.

Do NOT update the NTP server settings directly in the ECDN server VM. Instead, go to the ECDN Management portal, and navigate to that specific "ECDN server details" page, and then click to update the network settings. When you save the settings, the new values will be auto-propagated to the ECDN server. This way your settings will be preserved across ECDN server upgrades.