SNTP Status 'Other' while Server is 'Active', while routing with SecureStack C3/C2/B3

FAQ_User — Sat, 23 Nov 2013 00:59:00 GMT

Article ID: 7709

Products
SecureStack C3, 6.03.00.0022 and lower
SecureStack C2, firmware 3.00.50 and higher
SecureStack B3, firmware 1.01.01.0039 through 6.03.00.0022

Changes
Enabled Routing.
Enabled SNTP.
Did not add a host IP address.

Symptoms
SNTP does not start upon initial switch boot-up, even though configured properly (5571).
SNTP has a status of "Other" with server status as "Active".
SNTP is not polling.

Cause
By design, Network Time Protocol will not function with a zero-value host IP address. Even if it has a routed interface that can ping the SNTP server, it will not poll the server until the host IP address is configured.
C3(su)->show sntp
SNTP Version: 3
Current Time: SAT APR 21 04:23:36 2007
Timezone: 'est' offset from UTC is -5 hours and 0 minutes
Client Mode: unicast
Broadcast Count: 0
Poll Interval: 3600 seconds
Poll Retry: 10
Poll Timeout: 30 seconds
SNTP Poll Requests: 0
Last SNTP Update: THU JAN 01 00:00:00 1970
Last SNTP Request: THU JAN 01 00:00:00 1970
Last SNTP Status: Other

SNTP-Server Precedence Status
-------------------------------------------
10.20.0.5 1 Active
30.40.224.4 1 Active
C3(su)->

Solution
For the C3 and B3; upgrade to firmware 6.03.01.0008 or higher, and then specify the existing router loopback address or an existing local routed interface as the "SNTP interface" (i.e. 'set sntp interface {loopback loop-ID | vlan vlan-ID}').
For the C2, no change in the stated functionality is expected, due to hardware constraints.

Pre-upgrade workaround:
Assign an IP address to the switch host, using the 'set ip address...' command (5573).
This does not have to be a valid IP address - just other than 0.0.0.0. Even if the IP address is not reachable on your LAN, the SNTP polling will begin through a routed interface.

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SNTP Status 'Other' while Server is 'Active', while routing with SecureStack C3/C2/B3