Symptoms
- NTP clients stop receiving responses after the device loses its reference (GNSS, PTP, upstream NTP, or timecode)
- NTP service works while locked, but stops when the device becomes unlocked or enters holdover
Causes
- Time dissemination during reference outages is disabled, the device stops serving NTP to avoid distributing potentially inaccurate time
- A dissemination duration is configured and has expired, so outputs are intentionally disabled after a set time in holdover
Suggested solutions or troubleshooting steps
- Enable time dissemination during outages. In WinDiscovery, open Device Settings → Output Control and check Allow time server during reference outages.
- Set the duration appropriately. Set Duration time server is allowed to 0 if you want the device to continue serving NTP indefinitely during reference loss.
- Confirm expected status. During reference loss, the device may show Unlocked or Holdover while still responding to NTP. This is expected when dissemination is enabled.
- See the reference article for details. Time Dissemination During Reference Outages
Article ID: KB-NTP-005
KB Version: