System Health Tests Fail - ntp

Products

• Security Analytics

Issue/Introduction

The ntp system health test fails in Security Analytics.

Cause

The time/date is not set to something that is close to the actual time or the service is configured with Autokey but the ntp server does not support Autokey.

Resolution

The autokey feature is available for configuration but is not used by most configured ntp servers.  When enabling Autokey, you may see "Failed to start the NTP service." after selecting Save.  You may want to try deselecting Autokey and try Saving the configuration again. Also, verify that the time being set is within 30 seconds of the actual time.

Sample lines from /var/log/messages when using Autokey -

2023-06-16T18:18:00+05:30 yourhostname ntpd[7453]: ntpd [email protected] Tue Jun 25 15:38:18 UTC 2020 (1)
2023-06-16T18:18:00+05:30 yourhostname ntpd[7454]: proto: precision = 0.037 usec
2023-06-16T18:18:00+05:30 yourhostname ntpd[7454]: 10.0.0.1 c01d 0d kern kernel time sync enabled
2023-06-16T18:18:00+05:30 yourhostname ntpd[7454]: crypto_key: error:06065064:digital envelope routines:EVP_DecryptFinal_ex:bad decrypt
2023-06-16T18:18:00+05:30 yourhostname systemd[1]: ntpd.service: main process exited, code=exited, status=255/n/a
2023-06-16T18:18:00+05:30 yourhostname systemd[1]: Unit ntpd.service entered failed state.
2023-06-16T18:18:00+05:30 yourhostname systemd[1]: ntpd.service failed.