NTP Sync not happening for a newly installed MX304.

The following symptoms may be observed:

• Reachability to the NTP server is successful.
• NTP configuration is correct.
• The NTP daemon (ntpd) is running.
• show ntp status indicates synchronization to the local clock or does not report the expected NTP status.
• show ntp associations does not display the configured NTP peers as expected.

This is expected behavior.

The ntpq utility, which is used by CLI commands such as:

• show ntp status
• show ntp associations

requires at least one active interface in the default routing instance to communicate with the local ntpd daemon.

The interface selection is performed in the following order:

1. A loopback interface (lo0) in the default routing instance, if present.
2. Any other active interface in the default routing instance.
3. If neither is available, ntpq cannot communicate with the ntpd daemon.

As a result, the CLI cannot retrieve synchronization information even though the router may still have IP connectivity to the configured NTP server through another routing instance.

To restore normal operation of the NTP CLI commands, ensure that at least one active interface exists in the default routing instance.

This can be accomplished by either:

• Configuring a loopback interface (lo0) in the default routing instance, or
• Bringing up any other interface in the default routing instance.

Once an active interface is available, show ntp status and show ntp associations will function as expected.