IBM AIX 7.3 – Common Problem 96 – 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

xntpd shows unsynchronised state; cluster timestamps drift.

Environment & Reproduction

Triggered by upstream NTP outage or blocked UDP port 123.

Root Cause Analysis

Local clock stratum is 16 and offset grows beyond panic threshold.

Quick Triage

Run lssrc -s xntpd and ntpq -p to see peer state.

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Check /etc/ntp.conf for valid server entries and reachable peers.

Solution – Primary Fix

Step-correct with ntpdate -u server then refresh -s xntpd.

Solution – Alternative Approaches

Alternative: switch to chrony or NTPv4 client per IBM guidance.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

Verify ntpq -p shows a ‘*’ selected peer and small offset.

Rollback Plan

Keep a backup of /etc/ntp.conf and /etc/services before edits.

Prevention & Hardening

Add at least two upstream stratum-2 sources and a local fallback.

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

Related: TIME_SHIFT entries and PowerHA event timing mismatches.

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 configuration on AIX.