958 CHAPTER 77: NTP CONFIGURATION
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The access-control right mechanism provides only a minimum degree of security 
protection for the system running NTP. A more secure method is identity 
authentication.
Configuring NTP 
Authentication
The NTP authentication feature should be enabled for a system running NTP in a 
network where there is a high security demand. This feature enhances the 
network security by means of client-server key authentication, which prohibits a 
client from synchronizing with a switch that has failed authentication.
Configuration
Prerequisites
The configuration NTP authentication involves configuration tasks to be 
implemented on the client and on the server.
When configuring the NTP authentication feature, pay attention to the following 
principles:
■ For all synchronization modes, when you enable the NTP authentication 
feature, you should configure an authentication key and specify it as a trusted 
key. Namely, the ntp-service authentication enable command must work 
together with the ntp-service authentication-keyid command and the 
ntp-service reliable authentication-keyid command. Otherwise, the NTP 
authentication function cannot be normally enabled.
■ For the server/client mode or symmetric mode, you need to associate the 
specified authentication key on the client (symmetric-active peer if in the 
symmetric peer mode) with the corresponding NTP server (symmetric-passive 
peer if in the symmetric peer mode). Otherwise, the NTP authentication feature 
cannot be normally enabled.
■ For the broadcast server mode or multicast server mode, you need to associate 
the specified authentication key on the broadcast server or multicast server 
with the corresponding NTP server. Otherwise, the NTP authentication feature 
cannot be normally enabled.
■ For the server/client mode, if the NTP authentication feature has not been 
enabled for the client, the client can synchronize with the server regardless the 
NTP authentication feature has been enabled for the server or not.
■ For all synchronization modes, the server side and the client side must be 
consistently configured.
■ If the NTP authentication is enabled on a client, the client can be synchronized 
only to a server that can provide a trusted authentication key.
Configuration Procedure Configuring NTP authentication for a client
Follow these steps to configure NTP authentication for a client:
To do…  Use the command…  Remarks 
Enter system view  system-view - 
Enable NTP 
authentication 
ntp-service authentication enable Required
Disabled by default 
Configure an NTP 
authentication key 
ntp-service authentication-keyid 
keyid authentication-mode md5 
value 
Required
No NTP authentication key by 
default