Time

All Security Gateways, Security Management Servers and cluster members must synchronize their system clocks. This is important for these reasons:

  • SIC trust can fail if devices are not synchronized correctly.
  • Cluster synchronization requires precise clock synchronization between members.
  • SmartEvent correlation uses time stamps that must be synchronized to approximately one a second.
  • To make sure that cron jobs run at the correct time.
  • To do certificate validation for applications based on the correct time.

You can use these methods to set the system date and time:

  • Network Time Protocol (NTP).
  • Manually, using the WebUI or the CLI.

Network Time Protocol (NTP)

Network Time Protocol (NTP) is an Internet standard protocol used to synchronize the clocks of computers in a network to the millisecond.

NTP runs as a background client program on a client computer. It sends periodic time requests to specified servers to synchronize the client computer clock. We recommend that you configure more than one NTP server for redundancy.

Setting the Time and Date – WebUI

To set time and date automatically using NTP:

  1. In the WebUI tree, click System Management > Time.
  2. Click Set Time and Date.
  3. In the Time and Date Settings window, select Set Time and Date automatically using Network Time Protocol (NTP).
  4. Enter the URL or IP address of the primary and (optionally) secondary NTP servers.
  5. Select the NTP version for the applicable server.
  6. Click OK.

To set the system time and date:

  1. In the tree view, click System Management > Time.
  2. Click Set Time and Date.
  3. Enter the time and date in the applicable fields.
  4. Click OK.

To set the time zone:

  1. In the tree view, click System Management > Time.
  2. Click Set time Zone and select the time zone from the list.
  3. Click OK.

Configuring NTP – CLI (ntp)

NTP
Use this command to configure and troubleshoot the Network Time Protocol (NTP).
To monitor and troubleshoot your NTP implementation:

show ntp active
show ntp current
show ntp servers

To add a new NTP server:

set ntp active [On|Off]
set ntp server primary VALUE version VALUE
set ntp server secondary VALUE version VALUE
To delete an NTP server:

delete ntp server <IP>

Parameters

active
Shows the active NTP server or Enables or disables NTP. Valid values are On or Off.

current
Shows the host name or IP address of the NTP server you are using now.

primary
Set the host name or IP address of the primary NTP server.

secondary
The host name or IP address of the secondary NTP server.

version
The version number of the NTP server (from 1 to 4).

server
Keyword that identifies the NTP server.

Example
show ntp servers

 

Oput
IP Address Type Version
pool.ntp.org Primary 4

 

 

Comments – Server-Specifies the host name or IP address of the time server from which your system synchronizes its clock. The specified time server does not synchronize to the local clock of your system.
Version – The version number Specifies which version of NTP to run. Check Point recommends that you run version 3.

Showing the Time & Date – CLI (clock)
Clock

Show current system date and time
show clock

clock
The current system day, date, and time. The current system time is in HH:MM:SS format.

show clock
Thu Oct 6 15:20:00 2011 IST

Setting the Date – CLI (date)

set date <date>
show date

<date>
The date in the YYYY-MM-DD format.

Example :

set date 2012-08-10
Setting the Time – CLI (Time)
Set the system time in HH:MM:SS format

Syntax
set time <time of day>
show time

<time of day>
The current system time in HH:MM:SS format

Example
show time
Output
12:03:54

Setting the Time Zone – CLI (timezone)
Time Zone
Description


Show and Set the system time zone.

Syntax
set timezone <Area> / <Region>
Note: The spaces before and after the ‘/’ character are important.

show timezone
Region within the specified area.

Example
set timezone America / Detroit

 

Disable NTP :

/etc/init.d/ntp stop

If NTP services auto restart on a reboot that enter these values to force it to update incorrect values which will stop NTP from updating it’s clock.

set ntp server primary 0.0.0.0 version 3
set ntp server secondary 255.255.255.255 version 3