Nexus 7000 NTP support

[tmcmurray]

Hi everyone,

  Can the Nexus 7000 provide NTP to the rest of my network?  Can it be an NTP server?  I have the followign ntp configuration on it, and have used the commit command, but it seems to be ignoring any NTP requests from other devices.

version 4.2(4)
ntp distribute
ntp server 10.1.20.147 prefer
ntp server 3.north-america.pool.ntp.org
ntp server 2.north-america.pool.ntp.org
ntp server 1.north-america.pool.ntp.org
ntp server 0.north-america.pool.ntp.org
ntp source-interface  loopback0
ntp commit

Are there any other commands I need in order to have my 7K's act as NTP servers?

Thanks in advance...

[yjdabear]

Looks like the answer is negative, according to this article:

http://www.cngunicom.com/press.php?articlesID=15

"Finally, one big surprise was the lack of proper NTP server  functionality.  The Nexus 7000 is a Layer 3 core switch, which is a very  logical place to centralize NTP services.  The core switch will  synchronize to one or more Stratum 1 NTP servers, and allow all internal  switches and routers, and even servers to synchronize to it.  This  model could be particularly useful in situations with multiple VRFs.   Servers in one VRF might not be able to connect to systems in a  different VRF at all.  So making NTP services available on the Nexus  switch, which touches all VRFs would be an extremely useful design.

Unfortunately, the Nexus 7000 is only able to act as an NTP client.   This is particularly strange because it is built around Linux operating  system kernels on each module.  NTP server functionality is readily  available for Linux, so Cisco really shouldn't have needed to do any  additional work to make it available on the Nexus."

[phoffswell]

Running 5.2(1) here on our our C7010.  It will not respond to ntp requests, despite configuring it as such.

Is this true that NX/OS still does not support NTP service? 

We have just migrated from an old core that did, and do not want to reconfigure 100s of devices that count on the new core for ntp service.

Is there a work-around?

[Oleksandr Nesterov]

NX-OS 5.2.1 supports ntp server functionality in all vdc.

But you need to be aware of a bug CSCts53540

[phoffswell]

I have upgraded to 6.0(1) to get past the ntp server bug, but still cannot make ntp connections to the 7010:

CORE# show run ntp

!Command: show running-config ntp

!Time: Sat Dec  3 15:46:36 2011

version 6.0(1)

ntp distribute

ntp server 64.73.32.134

ntp peer 67.73.32.134

ntp server 68.68.18.78

ntp server 72.14.183.39

ntp peer 128.13.28.67

ntp server 128.113.28.67

ntp source-interface  Vlan1

ntp master 3

ntp commit

NTP client test, with our nexus at 10.1.1.1

networker:~ # ntpq -p 10.1.1.1

10.1.1.1: timed out, nothing received

***Request timed out

networker4:~ #

What am I missing?

[Collin Clark]

I just happen to be working on NTP on my 7K. I checked the command in the switch and I have the config guide open and the answer is no. I can't believe the authentication key can only be a max of 8 characters!

Hope that helps

[s-durando]

Hi,

is NTP server functionality still unavailable on NX-OS 5.1(2) version?

Regards

Stefano

[Oleksandr Nesterov]

Hello Colin

There is a bug submitted - that describes an issue with size of a key:

CSCtt32509

It will be increased in next NX-OS release - 5.2.3

[p-blake]

I am experiencing some strangeness with the Nexus 7k and NTP.  I have switches on the management vlan that are able to sync with the Nexus for NTP but when I try and sync a WAN router on another interface I am unable to.  Any thoughts on this?

Thanks for any input.