NTP Offset

Overview

The node_ntp_offset receiver measures the time difference between a node’s local clock and a configured Network Time Protocol (NTP) server.

Monitoring clock drift helps identify time synchronization issues that can affect:

Authentication and authorization
SSL/TLS certificate validation
Log correlation and troubleshooting
Distributed applications and workloads
Other time-sensitive system operations

Before you begin

Ensure that:

The NTP server is reachable from the monitored nodes.
You know the IP address or hostname of the NTP server.
The NTP server is listening on the configured port. The standard NTP port is 123.
You have permission to update the infrastructure metrics ConfigMap.

Configure the NTP Offset Receiver

1. View the current ConfigMap

kubectl get cm opsramp-k8s-infra-metric-user-config -n <agent-installed-namespace> -o yaml

Locate the node_ntp_offset configuration. By default, the receiver is disabled:

node_ntp_offset:
  enabled: false
  config:
    ipaddress: "127.0.0.1"
    port: "123"
    scrape_interval: "30m"

2. Edit the ConfigMap

kubectl edit cm opsramp-k8s-infra-metric-user-config -n <agent-installed-namespace>

3. Enable the receiver

Set enabled to true and update the NTP server details if required:

node_ntp_offset:
  enabled: true
  config:
    ipaddress: "127.0.0.1"
    port: "123"
    scrape_interval: "30m"

Note: Replace 127.0.0.1 with the IP address of your NTP server. Use a different port only if your NTP server is configured to listen on a non-standard port.

4. Review the configuration parameters

Parameter	Required	Description
`enabled`	Yes	Enables or disables the `node_ntp_offset` receiver. Set to `true` to collect NTP offset metrics.
`ipaddress`	Yes	IP address of the NTP server used to measure clock offset.
`port`	Yes	Port used to connect to the NTP server. The default NTP port is `123`.
`scrape_interval`	No	Frequency at which the NTP offset metric is collected. The default value is `30m`. The interval must be 30 minutes or greater.

The minimum supported scrape_interval for node_ntp_offset is 30 minutes. Do not configure a value lower than 30m.

5. Save the configuration

Save the ConfigMap and exit the editor. The updated configuration is automatically applied.

6. Verify the configuration

Confirm that the receiver is enabled and the configuration has been updated:

kubectl get cm opsramp-k8s-infra-metric-user-config -n <agent-installed-namespace> -o yaml

Supported metric

Metric Name	Description
`node_ntp_offset`	Difference, in seconds, between the node's local clock and the configured NTP server. A value close to zero indicates that the node clock is closely synchronized with the NTP server.