Recurring NTP Sync Issue on Avaya IPO Server Edition – Time Drift and Manual Restart Required

[William C290]

Hello Tek-Tips Community,

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I’m facing a recurring NTP synchronization issue on an Avaya IP Office Server Edition 11.1 setup that is impacting critical telephony services for a banking client.

Issue Description:​

• The system time drifts over time and loses synchronization with the NTP server.
• The NTP service (ntpd) stops syncing automatically.
• To fix the time, we currently run the following commands manually:

sudo systemctl restart ntpd
sudo ntpdate -u x.x.x.x

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• After about 5 minutes, the ntpq -p command shows * next to the server indicating sync is restored.
• However, this fix is temporary and the problem recurs after some time, requiring repeated manual intervention.

What We’ve Tried:​

• Ensured only valid NTP servers are in the configuration (removed local clock).
• Checked system time with timedatectl and NTP status with ntpq -p.
• Restarting the NTP service and forcing update as a workaround.

Impact:​

• Time drift causes issues with call center operations, reporting accuracy, and call recording synchronization.
• The issue has persisted despite multiple attempts to stabilize NTP sync.

Request for Advice:​

• Has anyone encountered similar recurring NTP sync failures on Avaya IPO environments?
• Are there recommended best practices or configuration tweaks to prevent this?
• Could there be underlying system or network issues causing the NTP service to lose sync?
• Any suggestions on how to enforce continuous NTP sync or automated recovery without manual restart?

Thanks in advance for your insights and help!

 

[Mo. Abdullah]

I faced this issue once, and Avaya told me it is a Linux corruption and recommended rebuilding the machine from scratch and restoring the configurations.
But I am using the following commands for any issues with the NTP service.
I hope it might help:

systemctl restart ntpd

systemctl enable ntpd

timedatectl set-ntp true

timedatectl set-local-rtc 1

systemctl enable --now chronyd

restart ntpd

ntpdate -q pool.ntp.org

vi /etc/ntp.conf