The Windows Server Clock Drift service is in a Warning or Failed state

Last Modified

Thu Feb 27 19:57 GMT 2020

Description

• This article addresses the issue where the Windows Server Clock Drift service is in a Warning or Failed state.

Environment

• N-able N-central

Solution

• The Windows Server Clock Drift service is used to monitor the time difference (in seconds) between a monitored Windows server and a Network Time Protocol (NTP) server
• Time Offset value: Indicates the difference (in seconds) between the clock time of the monitored device and the designated NTP server.
• It is possible to see the Windows Server Clock Drift Service in a failed or warning state because its thresholds have been met
• The service compares the system clock of the device with a NTP service specified in the service details
• The difference (or offset) between the 2 determines the state of the service.
• To verify the current time offset of the device, the following can be used from the command prompt:
  • w32tm /stripchart /computer:pool.ntp.org
• The offset will be measured and shown approximately every 2 seconds
• If the device is automatically synchronising its time with a local NTP server (such as a domain controller), please verify that the clock drift service is set to measure its offset against the same server as the local NTP.
• The default thresholds for the clock drift service are somewhat restrictive, which can be adjusted to lower the amount of notifications triggered
• To see the amount of time the server is off by you can run the following from command prompt:
  • w32tm /stripchart /computer:pool.ntp.org /samples:5 /dataonly
• The results will be something like this:
  • Tracking si.pool.ntp.org [194.249.198.37:123].
  • Collecting 5 samples.
  • The current time is 24.6.2011 13:29:08.
  • 13:29:08, +08.8351541s
  • 13:29:10, +08.7976694s
  • 13:29:12, +08.8065559s
  • 13:29:14, +08.7534768s
  • 13:29:16, +08.7956427s
    • NOTE: The +08.xxx is the amount of time that the two do not match by.
• To force a manual resync, please run the following command in command prompt:
  • w32tm /resync
    • ?NOTE: If you're presented with the error "the computer did not resync because no time data was available" then please review the following article:
      • The Windows Server Clock Drift service is in a Warning or Failed state, when running "w32tm /resync" the following error is produced "the computer did not resync because no time data was available"

Reference