Configuring The System Clock; Overview; Ntp - Juniper JUNOSE SOFTWARE FOR E SERIES 11.3.X - SYSTEM BASICS CONFIGURATION GUIDE 2010-10-04 Configuration Manual

CHAPTER 10

Configuring the System Clock

Overview

NTP

Copyright © 2010, Juniper Networks, Inc.
Use the procedures described in this chapter to configure the E Series router clock.
This chapter contains the following sections:
Overview on page 507
Platform Considerations on page 510
References on page 510
Setting the System Clock Manually on page 511
Before You Configure NTP on page 512
NTP Configuration Tasks on page 513
Monitoring NTP on page 518
You can use the clock commands to set the time and date on your system manually.
These commands allow you to specify settings such as the source of the time, the time
zone, and dates for seasonal time changes.
You can configure your router to update its clock automatically by configuring it as a
Network Time Protocol (NTP) client. NTP provides a method of synchronizing the system
clocks of hosts on the Internet to Universal Coordinated Time (UTC). Using NTP allows
the system to record accurate times of events. You can view the log file of events to
monitor the status of the network.
Since there is only one system clock, you can configure an NTP client on one virtual router
only. Other virtual routers obtain clock parameters from the system clock. However,
multiple virtual routers can act as NTP servers.
NTP uses a hierarchical structure of hosts, such as computers and routers, that form
client-server and peer associations. An NTP client synchronizes with an NTP server, which
in turn synchronizes with another time source. If two hosts provide synchronization for
each other, they are peers.
507