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Version: 4.4.0

Time Synchronization Best Practices

Introduction​

Accurate, consistent time across the Eyeglass appliance and ECA nodes is required for reliable job scheduling, log correlation, and — for ECA specifically — real-time processing and database operations between cluster nodes. Use the same NTP source across your Eyeglass appliance, ECA nodes, and managed storage platforms wherever possible.

Requirements​

  • Port: NTP uses UDP port 123, appliance/ECA → NTP server.
  • Common source: The appliance and ECA nodes must use the same NTP source as the rest of your environment.
  • Disable hypervisor time sync: If your appliance or ECA VMs run on VMware, disable VMware Tools host-to-guest time synchronization — it conflicts with NTP/chrony and can cause drift or sync failures.
  • DRS/SDRS exemption (ECA): For VMware environments with DRS and SDRS enabled, exempt ECA VMs and their vApp from dynamic relocation. ECA is a real-time application with time synchronization requirements between VMs for processing and database operations; DRS-triggered live migration can disrupt this. Migrating ECA VMs for planned maintenance is fine.

Configure NTP on the Eyeglass Appliance​

NTP is typically configured during initial deployment, but can be changed afterward.

  1. Verify the current date and timezone:

    date

  2. Check the NTP server currently in use:

    chronyc sources

    The output should show your NTP server with an asterisk (*) next to it, indicating it's the currently selected time source.

  3. If an update is needed, change the NTP server with:

    sudo /sbin/yast2 ntp-client

Configure NTP Across ECA Nodes​

info

Requires ECA version 2.9.0 or later.

Rather than configuring NTP on each ECA node individually, push the setting from the master node to all other nodes in the cluster:

  1. On the ECA master node, add the following to /opt/superna/eca/eca-env-common.conf (IP address or FQDN):

    export NTP_SERVERS=<your NTP server IP or FQDN>

  2. Apply the setting across the cluster:

    ecactl cluster up --config-ntp-server

    This distributes the NTP_SERVERS value to all nodes and syncs the chronyd service across the cluster.

See Also​