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yallaen
New Member
November 16, 2013
Question

NTP sources

  • November 16, 2013
  • 3 replies
  • 9077 views
Hello all; New to Fortinet devices. I' m a Cisco network engineer that has transitioned to a firewall team. I have questions on using NTP with these Fortinet devices. 1. Can you use multiple sources for NTP? For example, I want my device to point to an internal GPS timeserver, with a back-up to an external known server. 2. Can you only set 1 source ip for both? Does it matter? I have an internal GPS unit that is on my internal network. I' m using ntpv3 and authentication to the internal device. However, it' s not synching. BUT, the external time server IS synching, and not using authentication. However, if I do a debug on the internal, I can see that it is authenticating correctly. I know on Cisco devices, you can use the " prefer" command to force it to use one NTP server..and only if it cannot connect will it try the others you specified. Thanks in advance!

    3 replies

    emnoc
    New Member
    November 16, 2013
    1. Can you use multiple sources for NTP? For example, I want my device to point to an internal GPS timeserver, with a back-up to an external known server. 2. Can you only set 1 source ip for both? Does it matter?
    on #1, you can have multiple NTP servers via the edit command under config ntpserver on #2 I don' t know of an option to specify the src interface Now on your problem, do you know for sure if your allowed in the NTP access list/group for the time server? I haven' t play with NTPv3 auth within fortios and most of the earlier device didn' t support authentication.
    ede_pfau
    SuperUser
    SuperUser
    November 16, 2013
    Chances are that NTP auth is only supported on FOS 5.0 (if at all). See the docs, esp " What' s new in 5.0" . Preference is given via the sequence of the NTP server addresses you specify. The first server can the entered via GUI or CLI, the second and third via CLI only. AFAIK the second and third servers are only queried if the first failed. As a Cisco man, you surely feel at home with the CLI, so no pointers here for the exact command (Saturday night on my couch at home...).
    BSeklecki_GE
    Explorer II
    March 16, 2022

    So: It has been almost a decade since the original post and I still don't see an option for designating a NTP preferred peer/server within the client config.  FYI my first post >:}

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