2.System time configuration items

Item

 

Description

Manual

 

Select to manually configure the system time, including the setting

 

of Year, Month, Day, Hour, Minute, and Second.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Set the source interface for an NTP message.

 

 

If you do not want the IP address of a certain interface on the local

 

Source Interface

device to become the destination address of response messages,

 

you can specify the source interface for NTP messages, so that the

 

 

 

 

source IP address in the NTP messages is the primary IP address of

 

 

this interface.

Key 1

Key 2

NTP

Set an NTP authentication key.

The NTP authentication feature should be enabled for a system running NTP in a network where there is a high security demand. This feature enhances the network security by means of client-server key authentication, which prohibits a client from synchronizing with a device that has failed authentication.

You can set two authentication keys, each of which is composed of a key ID and key string.

ID is the ID of a key.

Key string is a character string for MD5 authentication key.

NTP Server 1/Reference Key ID

External

Reference

Source NTP Server

2/Reference

Key ID

Specify the IP address of an NTP server, and configure the authentication key ID used for the association with the NTP server. Only if the key provided by the server is the same with the specified key will the device synchronize its time to the NTP server.

You can configure two NTP servers. The clients will choose the optimal reference source.

IMPORTANT:

The IP address of an NTP server is a unicast address, and cannot be a broadcast or a multicast address, or the IP address of the local clock source.

TimeZone

Set the time zone for the system.

 

 

System time configuration example

Network requirements

As shown in a, the local clock of Device A is set as the reference clock.

Switch B works in the client mode, and uses Device A as the NTP server.

Configure NTP authentication on Device A and Switch B.

a.Network diagram for configuring system time

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