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Set the time for Smoothwall On-Premise Appliance

Updated

Making sure the time matches between your Smoothwall On-Premise Appliance and other systems ensures mappings are synced correctly. For example, if the times in your Smoothwall On-Premise Appliance and Directories don’t match, the Directory Groups won’t be mapped.

To set the time, you have three options:

  • Option 1: Have a time server running continuously. We recommend this option as your clock will always be accurate, and there will be no time jumps.
  • Option 2: Periodically retrieve the time from servers. Use this option if you do not want to expose a time server to a Network interface.
  • Option 3: Set the time manually. This option will result in the time drifting compared to other devices which will eventually cause issues. 

Before you begin

Set up a Network Interface

If you will be using Option 1, check you have set up an Internal Network interface. Make sure you add a static IP address, or it won’t show to select on the Time page.

Check your timezone

Select the right timezone to automatically adjust the time when the clocks change to British Summer Time (BST) when using Option 1 or Option 2.

  1. Go to System > Preferences > Time.
  2. In the Timezone section, select the right time zone from the Timezone dropdown. For the UK, this should be Europe/London.
  3. Select Save.

  Note

If you will be setting the time manually after changing the timezone, change the timezone, Save, then set the time, then Save. Editing both before saving will adjust the time in relation to the old timezone and set the time incorrectly.

 

Manage how your clock is set

Option 1: Have a time server running continuously

The Enabled checkbox in the Network time retrieval section has no effect in this configuration.

  1. In the Network time servers section, select the source to set the time from. Select either:
    • Multiple random public servers (recommended): Sets the time to the average time retrieved from five random time servers from pool.ntp.org
    • Selected single public server: Select a public time server from the drop-down. 
    • User defined single public or local server: Enter a hostname or an IP address to use a specific local or external time server to set the time.
  2. In the Network time service interfaces section, select the checkbox for one or more of your Network interfaces.
  3. Select Save.

Option 2: Periodically retrieve the time from servers

  1. Go to the Network time retrieval section.
  2. Select Enabled.
  3. Select how often to check the time using the Interval dropdown. It is set to 1 day by default, but you can change this to:
    • 1 hour (recommended, as this will prevent time jumps as much as possible)
    • 2 hours
    • 3 hours
    • 6 hours
    • 12 hours
    • 1 day
    • 2 days
    • 3 days
  4. In the Network time servers section, select the source to set the time from. Select either:
    • Multiple random public servers (recommended): Sets the time to the average time retrieved from five random time servers from pool.ntp.org
    • Selected single public server: Select a public time server from the drop-down. 
    • User defined single public or local server: Enter a hostname or an IP address to use a specific local or external time server to set the time.
  5. In the Network time service interfaces section, deselect all Network interfaces.
  6. Select Save.

Option 3: Set the time manually

To be able to use the manual option, you need to turn off the use of time servers:

  1. Goto the Network time retrieval section.
  2. Untick Enabled.

To select the date and time:

  1. Go to the Time and date section and select Set. 
  2. Set the hour, minute and second.
  3. Set the day, month and year. 

  Note

If you select a date that doesn’t exist then save, your selection will be unset, you’ll see an error and you will need to select a date again.

  1. Select Save.

To set manually using the current date and time:

  1. Select Get time now.
  2. Select Save.

Save the time to your Real Time Clock

Turn on the Save time to RTC option so your physical appliance clock can keep track of the time while offline. This is useful when rebooting, or if you will be storing your On-Premise Appliance hardware temporarily.

  1. Go to System > Preferences > Time.
  2. In the Network time retrieval section, select the Save time to RTC checkbox.
  3. Select Save.