Incorrect time on NSX Edges, systemctl status ntp command's output reports TIME_ERROR: 0x4041: Clock Unsynchronized

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

- Some or all the Edge nodes shows different time on the appliances: Command from admin CLI: get clock  

 /var/log/syslog of the Edge shows clock unsynchronized error:

51546:2025-10-08T03:54:59.221Z nsx-edge ntpd 1854 - -  kernel reports TIME_ERROR: 0x41: Clock Unsynchronized

- Executing the command: ntpq -p shows "No associated IDs returned" 

- Executing: systemctl status ntp shows Time_Error

- As per the above screen shot you can see that time synchronization is not happening

- You can see if ntp servers are setup on the appliance using the command from admin cli: get ntp-servers

- If they are not present you can reconfigure the NTP servers from the admin CLI using the command: set ntp-server <fqdn or ip>

  Or using the NSX UI: (reference) https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/nsx/vmware-nsx/4-2/administration-guide/operations-and-management/configure-a-node-profile.html#GUID-B4AE1432-690E-480E-91C4-903C1E549C23-en

- After which you can execute: ntpq -p --> shows .INIT. phase. NTP process or client that is "in INIT mode" or "not synchronized" is still in the process of establishing its clock's accuracy. 

- Executing: ntpq -c sysinfo also showing its stuck in INIT phase indicating issues with NTP server

Environment

VMware NSX-T Data Center

VMware NSX

Cause

When a ping is initiated to the NTP server's FQDN, the ping failed as the Edge node was not able to resolve the NTP server's FQDN to an IP indicating its the issue with the DNS servers.

Resolution

To resolve this:

1. Verify the DNS server configuration on all the Edge servers where there is issues with time using the following command from admin CLI:

 > get name-servers

2. If the DNS servers are not present, the NTP server FQDN will fail, so the DNS servers will need to be configured using the command:

> set name-server <DNS-server-IP>

3. Once the DNS IP setup is completed, test the ping towards the FQDN of the NTP server, once its reachable, then you can verify from root mode of the node: ntpq -c sysinfo and ntpq -p and now it should show the NTP is in sync: