You can manually configure the date and time of LoadMaster or leverage an NTP server.

NTP host(s)

Specify the host which is to be used as the NTP server. NTP is a strongly preferred option for a HA cluster. For a single unit it is at the user’s discretion. Clicking the Set NTP host button will refresh the time based on the details configured.

If you do not have a local NTP server, refer to www.pool.ntp.org for a list of public NTP server pools which can be used.

Note: The time zone must always be set manually.

Show NTP Authentication Parameters/Disable NTP Authentication

The LoadMaster supports NTPv4 which uses cryptographic signing to query a secure NTP server. This uses a simple authorization scheme which uses a shared secret and key to validate that the response from the server is actually valid. Enable the Show NTP Authentication Parameters check box to display the parameters that are needed to support NTP authenticated requests. If you select the Show NTP Authentication Parameters checkbox and change any of the parameters, the name of the check box changes to Disable NTP Authentication.

Note: For the NTPv4 feature to work, a file must be created on the server (/etc/ntp.keys), which has the following format:

<keyid> M <secret string> ... <keyid> M <secret string>

To enable the use of the key, specify the keyid in the trustedkey line of /etc/ntp.conf, for example, if the keyid is 5 then you have to specify “trustedkey5”. The trustedkey value can take multiple values, for example trustedkey 1 2 3 4 5 9 10).

NTP Key Type

Select the Show NTP Authentication Parameters check box to display the NTP Key Type drop-down list. Select either the MD5, SHA-1, or legacy SHA NTP key type. MD5 is the default value.

NTP Shared Secret

The NTP shared secret string. The NTP secret can be a maximum of 20 ASCII characters long or 40 hexadecimal characters long.

NTP Key ID

Select the NTP key ID. The values range from 1 to 99. Different key IDs can be used for different servers.

Set Date

Set the date on the LoadMaster.

Set Time

Set the time on the LoadMaster.

Set time zone

Set the time zone where the LoadMaster is located.