Chapter 3: Timestamping – NTP and Clock Drift
To set the time zone to...
Command
Greenwich Mean Time -5 hours (same as EST)
sysconf timezone set Etc/GMT+5
Eastern Time (with automatic DST adjustments)
sysconf timezone set EST5EDT
Abidjan
sysconf timezone set Africa/Abidjan
Hong Kong
sysconf timezone set Hongkong
Knox, Indiana, USA
sysconf timezone set America/Indiana/Knox
Correcting Clock Drift Manually
All computer systems show clock drift over time - the system time gradually deviates from accurate or "true"
time. For many applications, it is important that servers and clients be working to the same time standard, and
that drift be prevented or corrected.
Various methods have been devised to correct drift. The simplest and most reliable way is to implement
Network Time Protocol (NTP) and receive accurate time signals from a server that is dedicated to that task and
maintained to a very high standard of accuracy. This is discussed in
"NTP on SafeNet Luna Network HSM" on
Some situations might not permit maintaining a constant connection to an NTP server. Here we show an
example of drift (over several days) and describe how to correct it using the appliance's
sysconf drift
local
drift-correction commands.
To establish time drift and set drift correction:
1.
Begin drift measurement. This also sets the time. In order to establish the drift and its correction, accurate
time must be used when beginning and ending drift measurement. One method is to use NTP on a different
computer that has no connection to the SafeNet Luna Network HSM.
lunash:>
sysconf drift startmeasure -currentprecisetime
<hh:mm:ss>
NOTE
The SafeNet Luna Network HSM appliance must run uninterrupted for several days to
allow a clock drift to occur. Other testing can be done, but nothing that would potentially
change the system time (no power-cycles, for example) or the exercise would need to be
restarted.
You can check the status of the drift measurement at any time to ensure it has not been interrupted:
lunash:>
sysconf drift status
2.
Allow the drift measurement system to run for a minimum of 3 days before issuing the stop command. Issue
the
stopmeasure
command with the current accurate time:
lunash:>
sysconf drift stopmeasure -currentprecisetime
<hh:mm:ss>
The drift measurement is automatically stored.
SafeNet Luna Network HSM 7.3 Appliance Administration Guide
007-013576-005 Rev. A 13 December 2019 Copyright 2001-2019 Thales
42
