topic Re: Use SNTP or NTP on EXOS 33.7? in ExtremeSwitching (EXOS/Switch Engine)

Use SNTP or NTP on EXOS 33.7?

Ken_Applebaum — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 18:26:50 GMT

Hi,

I need to configure NTP or SNTP on all of our switches.
They had originally be configured to use SNTP, with the time server being our XMC, but the XMC does not provide this functionality.

So I am going to push out a configuration to all our switches to use ntp.org servers for time synchronization.
I realize I can use SNTP as follows:
configure sntp-client primary 0.pool.ntp.org vr VR-Default
configure sntp-client secondary 1.pool.ntp.org vr VR-Default
enable sntp-client

Alternatively, I can configure NTP as follows:
configure ntp server add 0.aerohive.pool.ntp.org initial-burst vr VR-Default

On a test switch, I actually have both configured, which I am not sure is the correct way to go.
Is there a best practice for EXOS regarding time synchronization, specifically which protocol to use, NTP or SNTP?

Any information regarding this would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Ken Applebaum

Re: Use SNTP or NTP on EXOS 33.7?

Gabriel_G — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 18:50:26 GMT

Hi Ken,

Note that NTP and SNTP cannot be enabled at the same time. You can use either in your network depending on what other devices support, I wouldn't necessarily say there is a best practice, although I find most people use SNTP more frequently.

You can find info on both of these protocols in the User Guide with some good config examples showing all of the tweaks you can perform:
https://documentation.extremenetworks.com/exos_31.6/downloads/EXOS_User_Guide_31.6.pdf

Page 97 - NTP

Page 123 - SNTP

I hope that helps!

Gabriel

Re: Use SNTP or NTP on EXOS 33.7?

Ken_Applebaum — Fri, 11 Mar 2022 17:34:03 GMT

@Gabriel_G
Thank you. I knew that I could not enable both NTP & SNTP at the same time, but I was going only on info from the CLI guide. I need to remember to review the user guides as well, since they give some more background to various configurations. Reviewing that helped my understanding of NTP/SNTP.