System Time and Date Management

You can manage the system time and date on your switch using automatic configuration, such as the Network Time Protocol (NTP), or manual configuration methods.

System Clock

The basis of time service is the system clock. This clock runs from the moment the system starts up and keeps track of the date and time.

The system clock can then be set from these sources:

■NTP

■Manual configuration

The system clock can provide time to these services:

■User show commands

■Logging and debugging messages

The system clock keeps track of time internally based on Universal Time Coordinated (UTC), also known as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). You can configure information about the local time zone and summer time (daylight saving time) so that the time appears correctly for the local time zone.

The system clock keeps track of whether the time is authoritative or not (that is, whether it has been set by a time source considered to be authoritative). If it is not authoritative, the time is available only for display purposes and is not redistributed. For configuration information, see Configuring Time and Date Manually.

Network Time Protocol

NTP is designed to time-synchronize a network of devices. NTP runs over User Datagram Protocol (UDP), which runs over IP. NTP is documented in RFC 1305.

An NTP network usually gets its time from an authoritative time source, such as a radio clock or an atomic clock attached to a time server. NTP then distributes this time across the network. NTP is extremely efficient; no more than one packet per minute is necessary to synchronize two devices to within a millisecond of one another.

NTP uses the concept of a stratum to describe how many NTP hops away a device is from an authoritative time source. A stratum 1 time server has a radio or atomic clock directly attached, a stratum 2 time server receives its time through NTP from a stratum 1 time server, and so on. A device running NTP automatically chooses as its time source the device with the lowest stratum number with which it communicates through NTP. This strategy effectively builds a self-organizing tree of NTP speakers.

NTP avoids synchronizing to a device whose time might not be accurate by never synchronizing to a device that is not synchronized. NTP also compares the time reported by several devices and does not synchronize to a device whose time is significantly different than the others, even if its stratum is lower.

The communications between devices running NTP (known as associations) are usually statically configured; each device is given the IP address of all devices with which it should form associations. Accurate timekeeping is possible by exchanging NTP messages between each pair of devices with an association. However, in a LAN environment, NTP can be configured to use IP broadcast messages instead. This alternative reduces configuration complexity because each device can simply be configured to send or receive broadcast messages. However, in that case, information flow is one-way only.

The time kept on a device is a critical resource; you should use the security features of NTP to avoid the accidental or malicious setting of an incorrect time. Two mechanisms are available: an access list-based restriction scheme and an encrypted authentication mechanism.

Cisco’s implementation of NTP does not support stratum 1 service; it is not possible to connect to a radio or atomic clock. We recommend that the time service for your network be derived from the public NTP servers available on the IP Internet.

Figure 14 shows a typical network example using NTP. Switch A is the NTP master, with Switches B, C, and D configured in NTP server mode, in server association with Switch A. Switch E is configured as an NTP peer to the upstream and downstream switches, Switch B and Switch F.

Figure 14 Typical NTP Network Configuration

If the network is isolated from the Internet, Cisco’s implementation of NTP allows a device to act as if it is synchronized through NTP, when in fact it has learned the time by using other means. Other devices then synchronize to that device through NTP.

When multiple sources of time are available, NTP is always considered to be more authoritative. NTP time overrides the time set by any other method.

Several manufacturers include NTP software for their host systems, and a publicly available version for systems running UNIX and its various derivatives is also available. This software allows host systems to be time-synchronized as well.

NTP Version 4

NTP version 4 is implemented on the switch. NTPv4 is an extension of NTP version 3. NTPv4 supports both IPv4 and IPv6 and is backward-compatible with NTPv3.

NTPv4 provides these capabilities:

■Support for IPv6.

■Improved security compared to NTPv3. The NTPv4 protocol provides a security framework based on public key cryptography and standard X509 certificates.

■Automatic calculation of the time-distribution hierarchy for a network. Using specific multicast groups, NTPv4 automatically configures the hierarchy of the servers to achieve the best time accuracy for the lowest bandwidth cost. This feature leverages site-local IPv6 multicast addresses.

For details about configuring NTPv4, see Cisco IOS IPv6 Configuration Guide on Cisco.com.

DNS

The DNS protocol controls the Domain Name System (DNS), a distributed database with which you can map hostnames to IP addresses. When you configure DNS on your switch, you can substitute the hostname for the IP address with all IP commands, such as ping, telnet, connect, and related Telnet support operations.

IP defines a hierarchical naming scheme that allows a device to be identified by its location or domain. Domain names are pieced together with periods (.) as the delimiting characters. For example, Cisco Systems is a commercial organization that IP identifies by a com domain name, so its domain name is cisco.com. A specific device in this domain, for example, the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) system is identified as ftp.cisco.com.

To keep track of domain names, IP has defined the concept of a domain name server, which holds a cache (or database) of names mapped to IP addresses. To map domain names to IP addresses, you must first identify the hostnames, specify the name server that is present on your network, and enable the DNS.

Default DNS Configuration

Login Banners

You can configure a message-of-the-day (MOTD) and a login banner. The MOTD banner displays on all connected terminals at login and is useful for sending messages that affect all network users (such as impending system shutdowns).

The login banner also displays on all connected terminals. It appears after the MOTD banner and before the login prompts.

The MOTD and login banners are not configured.

System Name and Prompt

You configure the system name on the switch to identify it. By default, the system name and prompt are Switch.

If you have not configured a system prompt, the first 20 characters of the system name are used as the system prompt. A greater-than symbol [>] is appended. The prompt is updated whenever the system name changes.

MAC Address Table

The MAC address table contains address information that the switch uses to forward traffic between ports. All MAC addresses in the address table are associated with one or more ports. The address table includes these types of addresses:

■Dynamic address—A source MAC address that the switch learns and then ages when it is not in use.

■Static address—A manually entered unicast address that does not age and that is not lost when the switch resets.

The address table lists the destination MAC address, the associated VLAN ID, and port number associated with the address and the type (static or dynamic).

Address Table

With multiple MAC addresses supported on all ports, you can connect any port on the switch to individual workstations, repeaters, switches, routers, or other network devices. The switch provides dynamic addressing by learning the source address of packets it receives on each port and adding the address and its associated port number to the address table. As stations are added or removed from the network, the switch updates the address table, adding new dynamic addresses and aging out those that are not in use.

The aging interval is globally configured. However, the switch maintains an address table for each VLAN, and STP can accelerate the aging interval on a per-VLAN basis.

The switch sends packets between any combination of ports, based on the destination address of the received packet. Using the MAC address table, the switch forwards the packet only to the port associated with the destination address. If the destination address is on the port that sent the packet, the packet is filtered and not forwarded. The switch always uses the store-and-forward method: complete packets are stored and checked for errors before transmission.

MAC Addresses and VLANs

All addresses are associated with a VLAN. An address can exist in more than one VLAN and have different destinations in each. Unicast addresses, for example, could be forwarded to port 1 in VLAN 1 and ports 9, 10, and 1 in VLAN 5.

Each VLAN maintains its own logical address table. A known address in one VLAN is unknown in another until it is learned or statically associated with a port in the other VLAN.

When private VLANs are configured, address learning depends on the type of MAC address:

■Dynamic MAC addresses learned in one VLAN of a private VLAN are replicated in the associated VLANs. For example, a MAC address learned in a private-VLAN secondary VLAN is replicated in the primary VLAN.

■Static MAC addresses configured in a primary or secondary VLAN are not replicated in the associated VLANs. When you configure a static MAC address in a private VLAN primary or secondary VLAN, you should also configure the same static MAC address in all associated VLANs.

Default MAC Address Table Configuration

Address Aging Time for VLANs

Dynamic addresses are source MAC addresses that the switch learns and then ages when they are not in use. You can change the aging time setting for all VLANs or for a specified VLAN.

Setting too short an aging time can cause addresses to be prematurely removed from the table. Then when the switch receives a packet for an unknown destination, it floods the packet to all ports in the same VLAN as the receiving port. This unnecessary flooding can impact performance. Setting too long an aging time can cause the address table to be filled with unused addresses, which prevents new addresses from being learned. Flooding results, which can impact switch performance.

MAC Address Change Notification Traps

MAC address change notification tracks users on a network by storing the MAC address change activity. When the switch learns or removes a MAC address, an SNMP notification trap can be sent to the NMS. If you have many users coming and going from the network, you can set a trap-interval time to bundle the notification traps to reduce network traffic. The MAC notification history table stores MAC address activity for each port for which the trap is set. MAC address change notifications are generated for dynamic and secure MAC addresses. Notifications are not generated for self addresses, multicast addresses, or other static addresses.

Static Addresses

A static address has these characteristics:

■Is manually entered in the address table and must be manually removed.

■Can be a unicast or multicast address.

■Does not age and is retained when the switch restarts.

You can add and remove static addresses and define the forwarding behavior for them. The forwarding behavior defines how a port that receives a packet forwards it to another port for transmission. Because all ports are associated with at least one VLAN, the switch acquires the VLAN ID for the address from the ports that you specify. You can specify a different list of destination ports for each source port.

A packet with a static address that arrives on a VLAN where it has not been statically entered is flooded to all ports and not learned.

You add a static address to the address table by specifying the destination MAC unicast address and the VLAN from which it is received. Packets received with this destination address are forwarded to the interface specified with the interface-id option.

When you configure a static MAC address in a private-VLAN primary or secondary VLAN, you should also configure the same static MAC address in all associated VLANs. Static MAC addresses configured in a private-VLAN primary or secondary VLAN are not replicated in the associated VLAN.

Unicast MAC Address Filtering

When unicast MAC address filtering is enabled, the switch drops packets with specific source or destination MAC addresses. This feature is disabled by default and only supports unicast static addresses.

Follow these guidelines when using this feature:

■Multicast MAC addresses, broadcast MAC addresses, and router MAC addresses are not supported. If you specify one of these addresses when entering the mac address-table static mac-addr vlan vlan-id drop global configuration command, one of these messages appears:

■Packets that are forwarded to the CPU are also not supported.

■If you add a unicast MAC address as a static address and configure unicast MAC address filtering, the switch either adds the MAC address as a static address or drops packets with that MAC address, depending on which command was entered last. The second command that you entered overrides the first command.

For example, if you enter the mac address-table static mac-addr vlan vlan-id interface interface-id global configuration command followed by the mac address-table static mac-addr vlan vlan-id drop command, the switch drops packets with the specified MAC address as a source or destination.

If you enter the mac address-table static mac-addr vlan vlan-id drop global configuration command followed by the mac address-table static mac-addr vlan vlan-id interface interface-id command, the switch adds the MAC address as a static address.

You enable unicast MAC address filtering and configure the switch to drop packets with a specific address by specifying the source or destination unicast MAC address and the VLAN from which it is received.

MAC Address Learning on a VLAN

By default, MAC address learning is enabled on all VLANs on the switch. You can control MAC address learning on a VLAN to manage the available MAC address table space by controlling which VLANs, and therefore which ports, can learn MAC addresses. Before you disable MAC address learning, be sure that you are familiar with the network topology and the switch system configuration. Disabling MAC address learning on a VLAN could cause flooding in the network.

Follow these guidelines when disabling MAC address learning on a VLAN:

■Use caution before disabling MAC address learning on a VLAN with a configured switch virtual interface (SVI). The switch then floods all IP packets in the Layer 2 domain.

■You can disable MAC address learning on a single VLAN ID (for example, no mac address-table learning vlan 223) or on a range of VLAN IDs (for example, no mac address-table learning vlan 1-20, 15).

■We recommend that you disable MAC address learning only in VLANs with two ports. If you disable MAC address learning on a VLAN with more than two ports, every packet entering the switch is flooded in that VLAN domain.

■You cannot disable MAC address learning on a VLAN that is used internally by the switch. If the VLAN ID that you enter is an internal VLAN, the switch generates an error message and rejects the command. To view internal VLANs in use, enter the show vlan internal usage privileged EXEC command.

■If you disable MAC address learning on a VLAN configured as a private-VLAN primary VLAN, MAC addresses are still learned on the secondary VLAN that belongs to the private VLAN and are then replicated on the primary VLAN. If you disable MAC address learning on the secondary VLAN, but not the primary VLAN of a private VLAN, MAC address learning occurs on the primary VLAN and is replicated on the secondary VLAN.

■You cannot disable MAC address learning on an RSPAN VLAN. The configuration is not allowed.

■If you disable MAC address learning on a VLAN that includes a secure port, MAC address learning is not disabled on that port. If you disable port security, the configured MAC address learning state is enabled.

To reenable MAC address learning on a VLAN, use the default mac address -table learning vlan vlan-id global configuration command. You can also reenable MAC address learning on a VLAN by entering the mac address -table learning vlan vlan-id global configuration command. The first (default) command returns to a default condition and therefore does not appear in the output from the show running-config command. The second command causes the configuration to appear in the show running-config privileged EXEC command display.

ARP Table Management

To communicate with a device (over Ethernet, for example), the software first must learn the 48-bit MAC address or the local data link address of that device. The process of learning the local data link address from an IP address is called address resolution.

The Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) associates a host IP address with the corresponding media or MAC addresses and the VLAN ID. Using an IP address, ARP finds the associated MAC address. When a MAC address is found, the IP-MAC address association is stored in an ARP cache for rapid retrieval. Then the IP datagram is encapsulated in a link-layer frame and sent over the network. Encapsulation of IP datagrams and ARP requests and replies on IEEE 802 networks other than Ethernet is specified by the Subnetwork Access Protocol (SNAP). By default, standard Ethernet-style ARP encapsulation (represented by the arpa keyword) is enabled on the IP interface.

ARP entries added manually to the table do not age and must be manually removed.

Configuring Time and Date Manually

If no other source of time is available, you can manually configure the time and date after the system is restarted. The time remains accurate until the next system restart. We recommend that you use manual configuration only as a last resort. If you have an outside source to which the switch can synchronize, you do not need to manually set the system clock.

Setting the System Clock

If you have an outside source on the network that provides time services, such as an NTP server, you do not need to manually set the system clock.

Beginning in privileged EXEC mode, follow these steps to set the system clock:

Configuring the Time Zone

The minutes-offset variable in the clock timezone global configuration command is available for those cases where a local time zone is a percentage of an hour different from UTC. For example, the time zone for some sections of Atlantic Canada (AST) is UTC-3.5, where the 3 means 3 hours and.5 means 50 percent. In this case, the necessary command is clock timezone AST -3 30.

Configuring Summer Time (Daylight Saving Time)

To configure summer time (daylight saving time) in areas where it starts and ends on a particular day of the week each year, perform this task:

Configuring Summer Time (Exact Date and Time)

To configure summer time when it does not follow a recurring pattern (configure the exact date and time of the next summer time events), perform this task:

Configuring a System Name

Setting Up DNS

If you use the switch IP address as its hostname, the IP address is used and no DNS query occurs. If you configure a hostname that contains no periods (.), a period followed by the default domain name is appended to the hostname before the DNS query is made to map the name to an IP address. The default domain name is the value set by the ip domain-name global configuration command. If there is a period (.) in the hostname, the Cisco IOS software looks up the IP address without appending any default domain name to the hostname.

Configuring Login Banners

Configuring a Message-of-the-Day Login Banner

You can create a single or multiline message banner that appears on the screen when someone logs in to the switch.

Configuring a Login Banner

You can configure a login banner to be displayed on all connected terminals. This banner appears after the MOTD banner and before the login prompt.

Managing the MAC Address Table

Changing the Address Aging Time

Configuring MAC Address Change Notification Traps

Configuring MAC Address Move Notification Traps

When you configure MAC-move notification, an SNMP notification is generated and sent to the network management system whenever a MAC address moves from one port to another within the same VLAN.

Configuring MAC Threshold Notification Traps

When you configure MAC threshold notification, an SNMP notification is generated and sent to the network management system when a MAC address table threshold limit is reached or exceeded.

Adding and Removing Static Address Entries

Configuring Unicast MAC Address Filtering

Disabling MAC Address Learning on a VLAN

Setting the System Clock: Example

This example shows how to manually set the system clock to 1:32 p.m. on July 23, 2001:

Configuring Summer Time: Examples

The first part of the clock summer-time global configuration command specifies when summer time begins, and the second part specifies when it ends. All times are relative to the local time zone. The start time is relative to standard time. The end time is relative to summer time. If the starting month is after the ending month, the system assumes that you are in the southern hemisphere.

This example (for daylight savings time) shows how to specify that summer time starts on the first Sunday in April at 02:00 and ends on the last Sunday in October at 02:00:

This example shows how to set summer time to start on October 12, 2000, at 02:00, and end on April 26, 2001, at 02:00:

Configuring a MOTD Banner: Examples

This example shows how to configure a MOTD banner for the switch by using the pound sign (#) symbol as the beginning and ending delimiter:

This example shows the banner that appears from the previous configuration:

Configuring a Login Banner: Example

This example shows how to configure a login banner for the switch by using the dollar sign ($) symbol as the beginning and ending delimiter:

Configuring MAC Address Change Notification Traps: Example

This example shows how to specify 172.20.10.10 as the NMS, enable the switch to send MAC address notification traps to the NMS, enable the MAC address-change notification feature, set the interval time to 123 seconds, set the history-size to 100 entries, and enable traps whenever a MAC address is added on the specified port.

Sending MAC Address Move Notification Traps: Example

This example shows how to specify 172.20.10.10 as the NMS, enable the switch to send MAC address move notification traps to the NMS, enable the MAC address move notification feature, and enable traps when a MAC address moves from one port to another.

Configuring MAC Threshold Notification Traps: Example

This example shows how to specify 172.20.10.10 as the NMS, enable the MAC address threshold notification feature, set the interval time to 123 seconds, and set the limit to 78 per cent.

Adding the Static Address to the MAC Address Table: Example

This example shows how to add the static address c2f3.220a.12f4 to the MAC address table. When a packet is received in VLAN 4 with this MAC address as its destination address, the packet is forwarded to the specified port:

Configuring Unicast MAC Address Filtering: Example

This example shows how to enable unicast MAC address filtering and to configure the switch to drop packets that have a source or destination address of c2f3.220a.12f4. When a packet is received in VLAN 4 with this MAC address as its source or destination, the packet is dropped:

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