IBM AIX 7.3 – Common Problem 114 – Diagnosis and Fix

📖 ~1 min read

Table of contents

1. Symptom & Impact
2. Environment & Reproduction
3. Root Cause Analysis
4. Quick Triage
5. Step-by-Step Diagnosis
6. Solution – Primary Fix
7. Solution – Alternative Approaches
8. Verification & Acceptance Criteria
9. Rollback Plan
10. Prevention & Hardening
11. Related Errors & Cross-Refs
12. References & Further Reading

Symptom & Impact

Kerberos/LDAP auth fails with clock skew errors.

Environment & Reproduction

LPAR booted without ntpd or chrony equivalent enabled.

Root Cause Analysis

AIX uses xntpd; without it, the TOD drifts seconds per day.

Quick Triage

Run lssrc -s xntpd and ntpq -p to see peers.

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Check date vs date on a known good NTP server.

Solution – Primary Fix

Edit /etc/ntp.conf with reliable servers, then startsrc -s xntpd.

Solution – Alternative Approaches

Force one-shot sync with ntpdate -u server (legacy path).

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

ntpq -p shows ‘*’ selected peer with low jitter.

Rollback Plan

Stop xntpd with stopsrc if it picks bad peer; reconfigure.

Prevention & Hardening

Add xntpd to /etc/rc.tcpip startup and monitor offset.

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

Pairs with errpt ‘TIME_CHANGED’ events post-reboot.

Related tutorial: View the step-by-step tutorial for aix-7.3.

View all aix-7.3 tutorials on the Tutorials Hub →

Browse all common problems & solutions on the Tutorials Hub.

References & Further Reading

IBM Docs: xntpd, ntp.conf.