Clock synchronization problems

[Ricardo_RM]

Hello community

A customer has a problem with the PME's time synchronization with the meters.

He mentions that the problem is in all the meters that are integrated into the PME.

An example that he mentions to us is that of an ION9000, where it is 3 seconds late, but has not synchronized for 9 days (the client does this synchronization manually). As seen in the following image:

Another example that he mentions is the following one that takes 2 minutes of difference, as seen in the image:

They have synchronization activated, as seen in the image:

Thus, with all the meters, the list of firmware they have is additionally presented, where you can see what happens with the meters with updated firmware and those that do not have it.

That's why we wanted to know if you have any idea what may be going on.

Thank you so much..

[Charles_Murison]

Hello @Ricardo_RM ,

The settings in PME is just step 1. The second is what are the settings inside the meter including security. One item to note, the clock module was set to line frequency, in general if syncing the meter more than once a month I would not recommend using this setting. Internal is a better option.

Is PME set to broadcast time sync or to send authenticated packet? Is meter setup with advanced security? Is broadcast time sync allowed? 

Are you able to capture traffic to/from the meter? Either inside the switch connected to the meter or possibly having the switch do a port mirror to another port where you can monitor the traffic with a computer running Wireshark?

regards,

Charles

[Ricardo_RM]

Hello @Charles_Murison 

Thank you very much for the response, one question, where can you see that the PME is configured to transmit time synchronization or send authenticated packets?

And what is the difference between them?

The other questions are asked to the client.

thank you so much

[Charles_Murison]

Hello @Ricardo_RM ,

To  see if PME will use authenticated time sync packets, go to device in management console -> right click device -> security. Check box as shown below will give the status. I am not 100% sure if this info is also possible in web device manager or not.

The difference is the time sync packet can either have no authentication information (broadcast) or user and password specific information as found in the security section of Mangement console (again pictured above).

Regards,

Charles

[Ricardo_RM]

Hello @Charles_Murison 

Thank you so much

What would be recommended, is the option shown in the image active or not?

Regards,

[Mehran_Mehrnia · Accepted solution]

Hi @Ricardo_RM 

As Charles mentioned previously, there is an option in meter's Security Option Module named:
'Allow Broadcast Timesyncs' which can be checked in Advanced mode of ION Setup:

and defines whether or not a username and password must be supplied to synchronize the time of the device (when advanced security is enabled).

If set to NO, it indicates that a username and password must always be supplied by any software used to synchronize the device time. In this case, the checkbox in PME -> MC -> Meter Security Settings needs to be checked.

If it is set to YES, then time synchronization can be performed without a username and password, then there is no need to check that checkbox.

Best Regards,

-Mehran

Expert Technical Support Specialist