Sunday, September 30, 2018

Cloudera CDH "Host Clock Offset" explained

https://www.cloudera.com/documentation/enterprise/5-8-x/topics/cm_ht_host.html#concept_pnm_cmn_yk


This is a host health test that checks if the host's system clock appears to be out-of-sync with its NTP server(s). 
The test uses the 'ntpdc -np' (if ntpd is running) or 'chronyc sources' (if chronyd is running) command to check that the host is synchronized to an NTP peer and that the absolute value of the host's clock offset from that peer is not too large. 
If the command fails, NTP is not synchronized to a server, or the host's NTP daemon is not running or cannot be contacted, the test will return "Bad" health. The 'ntpdc -np' or 'chronyc sources' output contains a row for each of the host's NTP servers. The row starting with a '*' (if ntpdc) or '^*' (if chronyc) contains the peer to which the host is currently synchronized. No row starting with a '*' or '^*' indicates that the host is not currently synchronized. 
Communication errors and too large an offset between the peer and the host time are examples of conditions that can lead to a host being unsynchronized. Make sure that UDP port 123 is open in any firewall that is in use. Check the system log for ntpd or chronyd messages related to configuration errors. 
If running ntpd, use 'ntpdc -c iostat' to verify that packets are sent and recieved between the different peers. More information about the conditions of each peer can be found by running the command 'ntpq -c as'. The output of this command includes the association ID that can be used in combination with 'ntpq -c "rv "' to get more information about the status of each such peer. The command 'ntpq -c pe' can also be used to return a summary of all peers and the reason why they are not in use. 
If running chronyd, use 'chronyc activity' to check how many NTP sources are online/offline. More information about the conditions of each peer can be found by running the command 'chronyc sourcestats'. To check chrony tracking, issue the command 'chronyc tracking'. 
If NTP is not in use on the host, this check should be disabled for the host using the configuration options shown below. Cloudera recommends using NTP for time synchronization of Hadoop clusters. A failure of this health test can indicate a problem with the host's NTP service or configuration. This test can be configured using the Host Clock Offset Thresholds host configuration setting.