Managing Time in iLO

iLO obtains the date and time from one of several sources and is not manually configurable.

• Network Time Protocol (NTP) Servers
• System UEFI during Boot

The configurable iLO time/date related configuration properties are:

• Time zone
• NTP Server addresses
• Option to synchronize the host to the date and time of iLO during first boot after AC power is applied ( PropagateTimeToHost Boolean, in the HpeiLODateTime data type.)

iLO date and time

Current date and time of iLO is available in the main Manager resource at /redfish/v1/Managers/{id}

GET /redfish/v1/Managers/{id}/?$select=DateTime, DateTimeLocalOffset

# The following iLOrest command logs into a remote iLO, selects the 
# Manager data type, retrieves the DateTime and DateTimeLocalOffset properties,
# and logout.

ilorest --nologo get --json DateTime DateTimeLocalOffset  \
        --selector Manager.                               \
        --url ilo-ip                                      \
        --user user --password password                   \
        --logout

{
  "DateTime": "2022-11-09T10:56:34Z",
  "DateTimeLocalOffset": "-06:00"
}

Date/Time Service Resource

A link exists in /redfish/v1/Managers/{id} to the iLO Date/Time Service. It points to a DateTime resource at /redfish/v1/Managers/{id}/DateTime part of the HpeiLODateTime data type.

Time Zone Management

Time Zone configuration is performed with a PATCH to the HpeiLODateTime resource type at /redfish/v1/Managers/{id}/DateTime.

The available time zones are listed in the TimeZoneList property. Take note of the Index value of the time zone you wish iLO to be configured with. Then PATCH the TimeZone.Index property:

PATCH /redfish/v1/Managers/{id}/DateTime

{
    "TimeZone": {
        "Index": 17
    }
}

If the operation is successful, iLO responds with HTTP 200 OK and ResetRequired. An iLO reset is required for date and time operations to be applied. After a successful PATCH the ConfigurationSettings property contains SomePendingReset indicating that some settings have changed but they not take effect until iLO is reset.

The following example illustrates this behavior using the iLOrest command line tool. Only relevant output is shown.

ilorest login ilo-ip -u user -p password
ilorest select HpeiLODateTime.
ilorest get --json TimeZone/Index ConfigurationSettings
{
  "ConfigurationSettings": "Current",
  "TimeZone": {
    "Index": 7,
    "Name": "Central America, Central Time(US & Canada)",
    "UtcOffset": "-06:00",
    "Value": "CST+6:00CDT+05:00:00,M3.2.0/02:00:00,M11.1.0/02:00:00"
}


ilorest set TimeZone/Index=17 --commit
Added the following patch:
{
  "TimeZone/Index": 17
}
Committing changes...
The operation completed successfully.

ilorest get --json TimeZone/Index ConfigurationSettings
{
  "ConfigurationSettings": "SomePendingReset",
  "TimeZone": 
  {
    "Index": 17 
  }
}

ilorest iloreset
A management processor reset is in progress.

sleep 90

ilorest login ilo-ip -u user -p password --selector HpeiLODateTime.
ilorest get --json TimeZone/Index ConfigurationSettings
{
  "ConfigurationSettings": "Current",
  "TimeZone": 
  {
    "Index": 17
  }
}

ilorest logout

If the time zone is configured to be managed by DHCP, iLO responds with HTTP 400 and SNTPConfigurationManagedByDHCPAndIsReadOnly (see Using DHCP Supplied Time Settings).

Configuring the Network Time Protocol (NTP)

The current configured Network Time Protocol (NTP) servers are available in the HpeiLODateTime resource type at /redfish/v1/Managers/{id}/DateTime.

GET /redfish/v1/Managers/{id}/DateTime/?$select=NTPServers

# The following iLOrest commands logs in a remote Redfish service,
# selects the HpeiLODateTime resource type,
# Retrieves in JSON format the list of configured NTP servers,
# and logout.

ilorest login ilo-ip -u user -p password
ilorest select HpeiLODateTime.
ilorest get --json NTPServers
ilorest logout

{
    "NTPServers": [
        "<NTP server 1 IP address>",
        "<NTP server 2 IP address>"
    ]
}

If NTP is not being managed by DHCP, you may PATCH server addresses into the StaticNTPServers array as shown in the following example.

PATCH /redfish/v1/Managers/{id}/DateTime

{
    "StaticNTPServers": [
        "<NTP server 1 IP address>"
    ]
}

{
    "StaticNTPServers": [
        "<NTP server 1 IP address>",
        "<NTP server 2 IP address>"        
    ]
}

If the operation is successful, iLO responds with HTTP 200 OK and Success. After a successful PATCH the ConfigurationSettings property contains Current indicating that the new settings have have been taken into account.

The following example is an iLOrest sequence of commands to set one or two NTP servers. The first example shows how to verify the new settings.

ilorest login ilo-ip -u user -p password
ilorest select HpeiLODateTime.
ilorest set StaticNTPServers=["",""]  --commit
ilorest reset

ilorest login ilo-ip -u user -p password
ilorest select HpeiLODateTime.
ilorest set StaticNTPServers=["<NTP server 1 IP address>",""]  --commit
ilorest select  HpeiLODateTime. --refresh
ilorest get -j NTPServers ConfigurationSettings
ilorest logout

ilorest login ilo-ip -u user -p password
ilorest select HpeiLODateTime.
ilorest set StaticNTPServers=["<NTP server 1 IP address>","<NTP server 2 IP address>"]  --commit
ilorest select  HpeiLODateTime. --refresh
ilorest get -j NTPServers ConfigurationSettings
ilorest logout

If the time zone is configured to be managed by DHCP, iLO responds with HTTP 400 and SNTPConfigurationManagedByDHCPAndIsReadOnly.