Clock and Time zone configuration

RouterOS uses data from the tz database, Most of the time zones from this database are
included, and have the same names. Because local time on the router is used mostly for
timestamping and time-dependant configuration, and not for historical date calculations, time
zone information about past years is not included. Currently only information starting from
2005 is included.
Following settings are available in the /system clock console path, and in the "Time" tab of
the "System > Clock" WinBox window:

time (HH:MM:SS, where HH - hour 00..24, MM - minutes 00..59, SS - seconds

00..59)

date (mmm/DD/YYYY, where mmm - month, one of jan, feb, mar, apr, may, jun, jul,
aug, sep, oct, nov, dec, DD - date, 00..31, YYYY - year, 1970..2037) : date and time
show current local time on the router. These values can be adjusted using the set
command. Local time cannot, however, be exported, and is not stored with the rest of
the configuration.

time-zone-name (manual, or name of time zone; default value: manual) : Name of

time zone. Like most of the text values in RouterOS, this value is case sensitive.
Special value manual applies manually configured GMT offset, which by default is
00:00 with no daylight saving time.

time-zone-autodetect (yes or no; default: yes) : This is new feature, starting from
6.27. If enabled, time zone will be set automaticaly.

Note: Time-zone-autodetect by default is enabled on new RouterOS installation or factory

reset, but on simple RouterOS update Time-zone-autodetect will stay disabled. The time
zone is detected depending from router public IP address and our commercial database.

Startup date and time is jan/02/1970 00:00:00 [+|-]gmt-offset. If router has a battery (for
example RB230), then BIOS stored time is used as a startup time.

Active time zone information

dst-active (yes or no>; read-only property) : This property has value yes while
daylight saving time of the current time zone is active.

gmt-offset ([+|-]HH:MM - offset in hours and minutes; read-only property) : This is

the current value of GMT offset used by the system, after applying base time zone
offset and active daylight saving time offset.

Manual time zone configuration

These settings are available in /system clock manual console path, and in the "Manual Time
Zone" tab of the "System > Clock" WinBox window. These settings have effect only when
time-zone-name=manual. It is only possible to manually configure single daylight saving
time period.

time-zone, dst-delta ([+|-]HH:MM - time offset in hours and minutes, leading plus
sign is optional; default value: +00:00) : While DST is not active use GMT offset
time-zone. While DST is active use GMT offset time-zone + dst-delta.

dst-start, dst-end (mmm/DD/YYYY HH:MM:SS - date and time, either date or time
can be ommited in the set command; default value: jan/01/1970 00:00:00) : Local
time when DST starts and ends.

Time update from cloud service

Starting from 6.14, there is a new feature to set time automatically from the MikroTik cloud
service, called Cloud time update. See IP/Cloud manual.

SNTP client
SNTP client is included in the system package. RouterOS implements SNTP protocol defined
in RFC4330. Manycast mode is not supported. NTP server and a NTP client is included in the
separate ntp package, that is not installed by default.
Client configuration is located in the /system ntp client console path, and the "System > NTP
Client" WinBox window. This configuration is shared by the SNTP client implementation in
the system package and the NTP client implementation in the ntp package. When ntp package
is installed and enabled, the SNTP client is disabled automatically.

Property
Desciption
enabled (yes, no default: enable SNTP client for time sychronisation
no)
mode (broadcast,unciast , Mode that SNTP client will operate in. If no NTP servers are
filed is read-only)
configured broadcast' mode will be used. If there is dynamic or
static NTP server ip address or FQDN used it will automatically
switch to unciast mode"
primary-ntp (IP address IP address of NTP server that has to be used for time
default: 0.0.0.0)
synchronisation. If both values are non-zero, then SNTP client
will alternate between the two server addresses, switching to the

other when request to the current server times out or when the
"KoD" packet is received, indicating that server is not willing to
respond to requests from this client.
see primary-ntp

secondary-ntp (IP
address default: 0.0.0.0)
server-dns-names
To set NTP server using its domain name. Domain name will be
(Comma separated
resolved each time NTP request is sent. Router has to have /ip
domain name list default: dns configured.
)

Status

active-server (IP address; read-only property) : Currently selected NTP server

address. This value is equal to primary-ntp or secondary-ntp.

poll-interval (Time interval; read-only property) : Current iterval between requests

sent to the active server. Initial value is 16 seconds, and it is increased by doubling to
15 minutes.

Last received packet information

Values of the following properties are reset when the SNTP client is stopped or restarted,
either because of a configuration change, or because of a network error.

last-update-from (IP address; read-only property) : Source IP address of the last

received NTP server packed that was successfully processed.

last-update-before (Time interval; read-only property) : Time since the last

successfully received server message.

last-adjustment (Time interval; read-only property) : Amount of clock adjustment

that was calculated from the last successfully received NTP server message.

last-bad-packet-from (IP address; read-only property) : Source IP address of last

received SNTP packed that was not successfully processed. Reason of the failure and
time since this packet was received is available in the next two properties.

last-bad-packet-before (Time interval; read-only property) : Time since the last

receive failure.

last-bad-packet-reason (Text; read-only property) : Text that describes reason of the

last receive failure. Possible values are:
o bad-packet-length - Packet length is not in the acceptable range.

o server-not-synchronized - Leap Indicator field is set to "alarm condition"

value, which means that clock on the server has not been synchronized yet.
o zero-transmit-timestamp - Transmit Timestamp field value is 0.
o bad-mode - Value of the Mode field is neither 'server' nor 'broadcast'.
o kod-ABCD - Received "KoD" (Kiss-o'-Death) response. ABCD is the short
"kiss code" text from the Reference Identifier field.
o broadcast - Received proadcast message, but mode=unicast.
o non-broadcast - Received packed was server reply, but mode=broadcast.
o server-ip-mismatch - Received response from address that is not activeserver.
o originate-timestamp-mismatch - Originate Timestamp field in the server
response message is not the same as the one included in the last request.
o roundtrip-too-long - request/response roundtrip exceeded 1 second.

Log messages
SNTP client can produce the following log messages. See article "log" on how to set up
logging and how to inspect logs.

ntp,debug gradually adjust by OFFS

ntp,debug instantly adjust by OFFS

ntp,debug Wait for N seconds before sending next message

ntp,debug Wait for N seconds before restarting

ntp,debug,packet packet receive error, restarting

ntp,debug,packet received PKT

ntp,debug,packet ignoring received PKT

ntp,debug,packet error sending to IP, restarting

ntp,debug,packet sending to IP PKT

Explanation of log message fields

OFFS - difference of two NTP timestamp values, in hexadecimal.

PKT - dump of NTP packet. If packet is shorter than the minimum 48 bytes, it is
dumped as a hexadecimal string. Otherwise, packet is dumped as a list of field names
and values, one per log line. Names of fields follow RFC4330.

IP - remote IP address.

NOTE: the above logging rules work only with the built-in SNTP client, the separate NTP
package doesn't have any logging facilities.

NTP client and server

To use NTP client and server, ntp package must be installed and enabled.

Client settings
Client configuration is located in /system ntp client.

enabled (yes or no; default value: no)

mode (One of broadcast, unicast, multicast or manycast.)

primary-ntp, secondary-ntp (IP address)

Server settings
Server configuration is located in /system ntp server.

enabled (yes or no; default value: no) - enable NTP server

broadcast (yes or no; default value: no) - enable certain NTP server mode, for this
mode to work you have to set up broadcast-addresses field

multicast (yes or no; default value: no) - enable certain NTP server mode

manycast (yes or no; default value: no) - enable certain NTP server mode

broadcast-addresses (IP address; default value: ) - set broadcast address to use for
NTP server broadcast mode

Example:
Set up NTP server for local network that is 192.168.88.0/24
/system ntp server
set broadcast=yes broadcast-addresses=192.168.88.255 enabled=yes
manycast=no

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This page was last modified on 11 February 2015, at 14:29.

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