SDDC Health Task Fails with Error: NTP service is not in running state

Products

• VMware SDDC Manager

Issue/Introduction

The Service Check sub-task during the Daily Health Check in SDDC Manager fails with the error: NTP service is not in running state.

Services-check: Check services running status on SDDC components. [NTP.SOSREST,POSTGRES.COMMON_SERVICES.SDDC_MANAGER_UI,DOM .. | Failed

Description: Services-check: Check services running status on SDDC components. [NTP,SOSREST,POSTGRES,COMMON_SERVICES,SDDC_MANAGER_UI,DOMAIN_MANAGER,OPERATIONS_MANAGER,VIP-MANAGER-(18n,LCM] Error: Message: NTP service is not in running state. Verified by running command systemctl status ntpd | grep Active:  Remediation Message: NilReference Token: NilCause: Nil

1- Service Startup Failure: Manual attempts to start the service fail with a generic exit code:

root@XXXX [ /home/vcf ]# systemctl start ntpd
Job for ntpd.service failed because the control process exited with error code.
See "systemctl status ntpd.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details.

2- Systemd Status:

ntpd.service - Network Time Service
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/ntpd.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code)
   Process: [Process ID (PID)] ExecStart=/usr/bin/ntpd -g -u ntp:ntp (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

3. Journalctl Logs: The logs confirm the service cannot start because the address is already in use:

ntpd[3874748]: restrict default: KOD does nothing without LIMITED.
ntpd[3874748]: initial drift restored to 15.467000
ntpd[3874748]: unable to bind to wildcard address :: - another process may be running - EXITING
systemd[1]: ntpd.service: Control process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE

4. Network Status Analysis: Running netstat reports an existing Process ID (PID) holding the socket for Port 123:

netstat -tulnp | grep :123
udp        0      0 xx.xx.xx.xx::123       0.0.0.0:*          613959/ntpd
udp        0      0 xx.xx.xx.xx:123        0.0.0.0:*          613959/ntpd
udp        0      0 xx.xx.xx.xx:123        0.0.0.0:*          613959/ntpd
udp6      0      0 ::1:123                      :::*          613959/ntpd
udp6      0      0 :::123                       :::*          613959/ntpd

Environment

VMware Cloud Foundation 5.2

Cause

The ntpd service failed to start because Port 123 was already occupied by a lingering Process ID (PID). This port conflict prevents the legitimate systemd service from binding to the required network interface, resulting in an immediate startup failure.

 

Resolution

To resolve the issue and start the ntpd service, follow the steps below:

1. SSH to SDDC Manager with root credentials.
2. Verify the ntpd status and logs to confirm they match the issue traces:
   • systemctl status ntpd
   • journalctl -xe
3. Identify the blocking Process ID (PID) using the following command:
   • netstat -tulnp | grep :123
4. Terminate the conflicting process:
   • kill -9 <Process ID (PID) identified in step 3>
5. Start the service:
   • systemctl start ntpd