RHEL 7 – chronyd Not Running After Migration from ntpd

📖 ~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

Time drift appears after migration, affecting authentication and scheduled job accuracy.

Environment & Reproduction

Occurs when ntpd is disabled but chronyd service is not enabled or configured.

Root Cause Analysis

Service handoff from ntpd to chronyd was incomplete, leaving no active time daemon.

Quick Triage

Check systemctl status chronyd and inspect journalctl -u chronyd for startup errors.

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Verify chrony.conf sources and ensure firewalld permits outbound NTP traffic.

Solution – Primary Fix

Enable and start chronyd service, disable ntpd, and validate source lock.

Solution – Alternative Approaches

Retain ntpd with documented exception if application certification requires it.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

chronyc tracking reports normal offset and system clock remains synchronized.

Rollback Plan

Re-enable ntpd and restore previous time config if chronyd cannot stabilize.

Prevention & Hardening

Include service enablement checks in migration runbooks and post-change validation.

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

NTP service not active, leap status not synchronized, kerberos clock skew.

Related tutorial: View the step-by-step tutorial for rhel-7.

View all rhel-7 tutorials on the Tutorials Hub →

Browse all common problems & solutions on the Tutorials Hub.

References & Further Reading

RHEL 7 chrony and ntpd migration operations documentation.