How Date and Time are configured to synchronize with an NTP server
Table of Contents
NTP configuration and verification on Junos#
lab@vSRX> show configuration system | find ntp
ntp {
server 172.25.11.254;
}
lab@vSRX> show configuration system | find zone
time-zone Europe/Berlin;
syslog {
file interactive-commands {
interactive-commands any;
}
file messages {
any any;
authorization info;
}
}
license {
autoupdate {
url https://ae1.juniper.net/junos/key_retrieval;
}
}
ntp {
server 172.25.11.254;
}
lab@vSRX>
Then I instruct Junos to sync its date and time with the NTP server. Note that the set date ntp is executed at the operational mode:
lab@vSRX> set date ntp
27 Aug 14:53:17 ntpdate[41191]: step time server 172.25.11.254 offset +0.000689 sec
lab@vSRX>
To verify that date and time have been successfully synchronized with the NTP server:
lab@vSRX> show ntp associations
remote refid auth st t when poll reach delay of
fset jitter rootdelay rootdisp
=====================================================================================
================================
*172.25.11.254 10.210.8.72 - 3 u 63 64 177 0.378 +0
.299 1.960 12.161 54.642
lab@vSRX>
lab@vSRX> show system uptime
Current time: 2026-08-27 15:01:28 CEST
Time Source: NTP CLOCK
System booted: 2026-08-27 05:26:19 CEST (09:35:09 ago)
Protocols started: 2026-08-27 05:27:16 CEST (09:34:12 ago)
Last configured: 2026-08-27 14:51:52 CEST (00:09:36 ago) by lab
3:01PM up 9:35, 1 users, load averages: 3.12, 2.61, 2.57
lab@vSRX>
NTP configuration and debugging on Cisco Catalyst 6500 series#
Situation
- 6500 switch is the corporate NTP server
- Server team wants to synchronize Active Directory time with the NTP server. Troubleshooting
- enable NTP debugs:

- check logs on the 6500 switch:
