NetApp storage and Active Directory Time Issues

[Harvey_Mulenga]

Why do we have to keep adjusting time on Storage to Sync it to AD? This is happening on daily basis. The environment has two NTP set. A time skew of just two minutes makes our shares inaccessible!

[Harvey_Mulenga]

I must mention that we have two ADs which we use as NTP Servers. Strangely, we keep adjusting time on our storage every other day! What could be the problem?

[Ontapforrum · Accepted solution]

Ideally, if the time difference between the storage system and the DC is greater than 5 minutes, only then a CIFS authentication failure will occur.

I would suggest, instead of using 'DC' as time-server, use external NTP server. External NTP server enables the storage array to automatically synchronize the controller's clocks with an external host . The controller periodically queries the configured NTP server, and then uses the results to update its internal time-of-day clock.

Following is a very detailed KB on this topic for troubleshooting purpose:
https://kb.netapp.com/Advice_and_Troubleshooting/Data_Storage_Software/ONTAP_OS/How_to_configure_and_troubleshoot_NTP_on_clustered_Data_ONTAP_8.2_and_...

https://kb.netapp.com/Advice_and_Troubleshooting/Data_Storage_Software/ONTAP_OS/How_to_determine_if_a_Windows_Domain_Controller_is_a_suitable_NTP_serv...

ONTAP9:
https://docs.netapp.com/ontap-9/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.netapp.doc.dot-cm-sag%2FGUID-644CED2B-ABC9-4FC5-BEB2-1BE6A867919E.html

[Harvey_Mulenga]

Hi All,

Thank you very much for the support. I will go through all the posts and get back to you at some point.

Best Regards

Harvey