Brocade 300 Hardware Reference Manual - Manual (Page 21)

Date and time settings
The Brocade 300 maintains the current date and time inside a battery-backed real-time clock (RTC)
circuit. Date and time are used for logging events. Switch operation does not depend on the date and
time; a Brocade 300 with an incorrect date and time value still functions properly. However, because the
date and time are used for logging, error detection, and troubleshooting, you should set them correctly.
Time zones
You can set the time zone for the switch by name. You can also set country, city or time zone
parameters.
If the time zone is not set with the new options, the switch retains the offset time zone settings. The
tsTimeZone command includes an option to revert to the prior time zone format. For more information
about the --old option, see the Fabric OS Command Reference.
You can set the time zone for a switch using the tsTimeZone command. The tsTimeZone command
allows you to perform the following tasks:
• Display all of the time zones supported in the firmware
• Set the time zone based on a country and city combination or based on a time zone ID such as PST
The time zone setting has the following characteristics:
• You can view the time zone settings. However, only those with administrative permissions can set
the time zones.
• The tsTimeZone setting automatically adjusts for Daylight Savings Time.
• Changing the time zone on a switch updates the local time zone setup and is reflected in local time
calculations.
• By default, all switches are in the GMT time zone (0,0). If all switches in a fabric are in one time zone,
it is possible for you to keep the time zone setup at the default setting.
• System services that have already started will reflect the time zone changes only after the next
reboot.
• Time zone settings persist across failover for high availability.
Local time synchronization
You can synchronize the local time of the principal or primary fabric configuration server (FCS) switch to
a maximum of eight external network time protocol (NTP) servers. To keep the time in your SAN
current, it is recommended that the principal or primary FCS switch has its time synchronized with at
least one external NTP server. The other switches in the fabric will automatically take their time from the
principal or primary FCS switch.
All switches in the fabric maintain the current clock server value in non-volatile memory. By default, this
value is the local clock server <LOCL> of the principal or primary FCS switch. Changes to the clock
server value on the principal or primary FCS switch are propagated to all switches in the fabric.
When a new switch enters the fabric, the time server daemon of the principal or primary FCS switch
sends out the addresses of all existing clock servers and the time to the new switch. If a switch with
v5.3.0 or later has entered the fabric it will be able to store the list and the active servers; pre-5.3.0
Fabric OS switches will ignore the new list parameter in the payload and will update only the active
server address.
If the active NTP server configured is IPv6, then distributing the same in the fabric will not be possible to
switches earlier than v5.3.0 because IPv6 is supported for Fabric OS version 5.3.0 and later. The
default value LOCL will be distributed to pre-5.3.0 switches.
Date and time settings
Brocade 300 Hardware Reference Manual 21
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