Why is Longview telling me my "system clock is fast"?

There are a couple of reasons why Longview would display the "Your System's Clock is Slow/Fast" message.

1. NTP is not installed or is not running
2. NTP is not synced correctly
3. Your Linode is having trouble communicating with Longview (due to IPv6 connectivity issues or firewall rules)

To check whether NTP is installed and synced, use the ntpstat command. Ideally, you will see an output indicating that your clock is synchronised to the NTP server and your time is correct within milliseconds. If not, you will need to enable NTP.

If your ntpstat output is correct, check your Longview debug logs. If there is latency between posting data and the 200 OK message, your Linode is likely having trouble communicating with Longview. There are two common reasons we see this: IPv6 connectivity issues and firewall rules.

If you have a firewall set up on your Linode, make sure it is permitting Longview communication. More information about firewall rules for Longview can be found here.

If your firewall is configured to permit Longview communication and you are still seeing the system clock message, it is likely that IPv6 connectivity is the cause. You can force Longview to use IPv4 instead by running the command sudo echo "$(dig +short longview.linode.com) longview.linode.com" >> /etc/hosts.

More information about troubleshooting Longview can be found in our Longview guide. Additionally, if the above steps are unsuccessful, you are always welcome to open a Support ticket!