Chapter 9: Administration: Time Settings - Cisco 350 Series Administration Manual

Administration: Time Settings
NOTE
Cisco 350, 350X and 550X Series Managed Switches, Firmware Release 2.4, ver 0.4
Synchronized system clocks provide a frame of reference between all devices on the network.
Network time synchronization is critical because every aspect of managing, securing,
planning, and debugging a network involves determining when events occur. Without
synchronized clocks, accurately correlating log files between devices when tracking security
breaches or network usage is impossible.
Synchronized time also reduces confusion in shared file systems, as it is important for the
modification times to be consistent, regardless of the machine on which the file systems
reside.
For these reasons, it is important that the time configured on all of the devices on the network
is accurate.
The device supports Simple Network Time Protocol (SNTP) and when enabled, the device
dynamically synchronizes the device time with time from an SNTP server. The device operates
only as an SNTP client, and cannot provide time services to other devices.
This section describes the options for configuring the system time, time zone, and Daylight
Savings Time (DST). It covers the following topics:
• System Time Configuration
• SNTP Modes
• System Time
• SNTP Unicast
• SNTP Multicast/Anycast
• SNTP Authentication
• Time Range
• Recurring Time Range
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