Synchronize Time on the Management Center with an NTP Server

Time synchronization among all of the components of your system is critically important.

The best way to ensure proper time synchronization between management center and all managed devices is to use an NTP server on your network.

The management center supports NTPv4.

You must have Admin or Network Admin privileges to do this procedure.

Before you begin

Note the following:

  • If your management center and managed devices cannot access a network NTP server, do not use this procedure. Instead, see Synchronize Time Without Access to a Network NTP Server.

  • Do not specify an untrusted NTP server.

  • If you plan to establish a secure connection with an NTP server (recommended for system security), obtain an SHA-1, MD5, or AES-128 CMAC key number and value configured on that NTP server.

  • Connections to NTP servers do not use configured proxy settings.

  • Firepower 4100 Series devices and Firepower 9300 devices cannot use this procedure to set the system time. Instead, configure those devices to use the same NTP server(s) that you configure using this procedure. For instructions, see the documentation for your hardware model.

Caution

If the management center is rebooted and your DHCP server sets an NTP server record different than the one you specify here, the DHCP-provided NTP server will be used instead. To avoid this situation, configure your DHCP server to use the same NTP server.

Procedure

Step 1

Choose System > Configuration.

Step 2

Click Time Synchronization.

Step 3

If Serve Time via NTP is Enabled, choose Disabled to disable the management center as an NTP server.

Step 4

For the Set My Clock option, choose Via NTP.

Step 5

Click Add.

Step 6

In the Add NTP Server dialog box, enter the host name or IPv4 or IPv6 address of an NTP server.

Step 7

(Optional) To secure communication between your management center and the NTP server:

  1. Select MD5, SHA-1 or AES-128 CMAC from the Key Type drop-down list.

  2. Enter an the corresponding MD5, SHA-1, or AES-128 CMAC Key Number and Key Value from the specified NTP server.

Step 8

Click Add.

Step 9

To add more NTP servers, repeat Steps 5 through 8.

Step 10

(Optional) To force the management center to use only an NTP server that successfully authenticates, check the Use the authenticated NTP server only check box.

Step 11

Click Save.

What to do next

Set managed devices to synchronize with the same NTP server or servers: