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The IPSentry Network Time Add-In provides you with the ability to insure that the system on which IPSentry is running maintains a valid date and time when compared with the servers such as the US Naval Observatory.

The Add-in makes use of both TIME and NTP time protocols.

The add-in can be used as a monitoring-only add-in that will trigger alerts when the clock on the local system is out of sync with the time server by the specified number of seconds.

The add-in can also be used a an alert style add-in to synchronize the time after alerts have been generated, or the time can be automatically synchronized during the monitoring cycle

Monitoring Functionality
From the Entry Editor, set the Type of entry to Add-In, click Select Add-In and select the Network Time Monitor.
Click on the Configure Add-In button.

Network Time Monitor Configuration - Time Server(s)

Network Time Monitoring and Synchronizing Add-In Configuration

When you select "Configure Add-In" from the IPSentry machine options editor or the Alert Add-In configuration window, you will be presented with the main Network Time Add-In Configuration Window.

This window contains the necessary fields allowing you to specify the time server, action, and time threshold values to be used.

This document discusses the fields and entries on the main configuration window.

Protocol
Select the protocol to be used for the selected server list.  We recommend selecting servers with the same protocol and specifying that protocol here.  If you select Auto-Detect, then each server will be queried using TIME and NTP in order to attempt to retrieve a response using whatever protocol it can.

Server(s)
This field contains one or more time servers from which the time will be queried and evaluated.  These servers will be queried until one responds within the timeout/retry count specified.  If you select the "Use Closest Offset", all server will be queried.

Select

Network Time Monitoring and Synchronizing Add-In Configuration
When you click the Select button, you will be presented with the time server selection list.  This list can be modified to your liking by adding, removing, or modifying the various entries available.  Place a checkmark next to the entries that you wish for the time monitor to query when evaluating the time comparison.

Query All
Click this option to have the add-in query all servers in the list and store their response times and/or available status.  You may use this function to evaluate which servers are responding to which protocols and select the servers with the lowest response times.

Add
Click to add a new time server to the database.

Modify
Click to modify the settings for the selected time server

Remove
Click to remove the time server from the database of available time servers.

Editing Time Server Entries

Network Time Monitoring and Synchronizing Add-In Configuration
When you select to add or modify a time server, you will be presented with the Customer Time Server configuration window.

Available Protocols
Select the protocols that the time server will use to accept time requests.

Region
Enter the 2 character identifier to represent the region for the time server for reference purposes.

FQDN
Enter the fully qualified domain name of the time server (or IP Address)

Test
Click this button to query the time server using the selected protocols to verify your configuration.

Use Closest Offset
When utilizing multiple time servers, this option will cause the add-in to query all servers specified in the servers field and use the time from the server which returns a time closest to the current system time.

Timeout
Enter the number of seconds before the query requests times out.

Retries
Enter the number of attempts that should be made to each server in order to obtain a time response.

Return Error on Non Response
If this option is selected, the add-in will return a critical status if no response is received from the selected time servers.

Network Time Monitor Configuration - Comparison

Network Time Monitoring and Synchronizing Add-In Configuration
 

Time Variance Threshold
Enter the maximum variance in number of seconds that the local clock can be out of sync with the time server.

Return failure if variance exceeds threshold
If the time variance exceeds the threshold, the add-in will return 'critical'.

Set local system time if threshold exceeded
If the time variance exceeds the threshold, the add-in will set the local system time to match the time server.

Don't set time if variance is more than...
This option allows you to avoid invalid packet data which may cause a local time set that is obviously incorrect (as far as this setting is concerned.)  For example, if a variance of -86400 seconds was detected and this option was not set, the local system clock would be set to yesterday.  While this should not be an issue, there is the possibility that a proprietary or private time server was configured improperly or an invalid adjustment was made causing it to report a time that was incorrect.  If you are running the time monitor every 10 minutes or so, you should set this value to 300 or 600 since a time variance exceeding this is most likely invalid and should be discarded.

 

 



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