Smarter by Design.Simpler for Business
TR7Enterprise Application Delivery & Security Platform
What is NTP; why is time synchronization important in TR7?
Short answer
NTP (Network Time Protocol) is the protocol that synchronizes the device clock with time servers on the network (RFC 5905). In TR7, an accurate clock is critical for several reasons: if the clock drifts, TLS certificates can appear "expired" or "not yet valid" and handshakes can fail; time-based one-time codes such as TOTP cannot be verified; the timestamps of log and audit records are wrong and SIEM correlation breaks; the events of the two devices in a cluster cannot be read on the same timeline; scheduled tasks (periodic report e-mails, the nightly backup, automatic disk cleanup) run at the wrong time (NTP Time Sync · What Is It For?). The time server is entered in the NTP Server field on the NTP Time Sync screen (default tr.pool.ntp.org); the synchronization status is monitored in the Time Info row; when synchronization is lost or the clock drifts by more than the set threshold, the NTP Synchronization Notification profile, which comes ready on new installations, sends a notification.
Where It Is Used in TR7
| Where | Field / label | What for |
|---|---|---|
| Settings → General Settings → NTP Time Sync → Edit | Timezone (default Europe/Istanbul), NTP Server | Time zone and time servers; multiple servers are entered separated by spaces |
| Same form | Minimum Agreeing Time Sources (default 1), Maximum Accepted Clock Correction (off by default) | Protections against a broken or misleading time source |
| Settings → General Settings → NTP Time Sync | Force Synchronization | Synchronizing the clock immediately, without waiting |
| NTP Time Sync screen and Home & Dashboard | Time Info row | Synchronization status, the synchronized server and the clock offset |
| Settings → General Settings → Notification Management → Notifications | Notification Type = NTP synchronization; Alert when the clock is off by more than (default 5 seconds) | Notification when synchronization is lost or the clock exceeds the threshold |
- The stratum value in Time info: What is stratum in NTP; why is it shown in the TR7 Time Info row?
- In a cluster, the NTP settings are synchronized to the peer device; each device synchronizes its clock itself, so Time info and Force synchronization are separate for each device.
Common Misconceptions
- "A certificate error always originates from the certificate." If the device clock has drifted, even a valid certificate can appear expired or not yet valid; Time info is examined first.
- "With a single NTP server, raising Minimum agreeing time sources increases security." With a single source, the value must stay at 1; a higher value stops synchronization. The value is raised only when multiple independent sources are defined.
- "Changing Timezone synchronizes the clock." Timezone determines only in which time zone the time is displayed; synchronization is done by NTP server.
How it is done in the documentation
