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Troubleshooting

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To report a problem, see Opening a Support Case for instructions on getting technical help through the Customer Portal.

Error Messages​

When provisioning Equinix Precision Time in the Customer Portal, the following error messages may appear. Use the corresponding actions.

  • We are unable to connect to Equinix Precision Time through Equinix Fabric.

    • Action: Wait a few minutes, then try again. If the issue persists, contact Customer Support by Opening a Support Case.

  • We could not retrieve Equinix Cloud Exchange ports or Network Edge devices for your Account.

    • Action: Contact your Equinix Account Manager to order a new port or device, or request access to ports or devices configured for your organization.

  • You do not have Equinix Cloud Exchange ports or Network Edge devices in the region you’ve selected for Equinix Precision Time.

    • Action: If you require the selected region, contact your Equinix Account Executive to order a new port or virtual device. Alternatively, request access to existing ports or devices in that region.

  • We are unable to fetch information on the Equinix Precision Time service.

    • Action: Try again after a few minutes. If the issue persists, contact Customer Support by Opening a Support Case.

  • No locations found for this service.

    • Action: Contact your Equinix Account Manager to verify service locations.

  • We are unable to fetch some required information.

  • We are unable to create the time service.

  • You do not have permission to create a connection.

    • Action: Contact Equinix Customer Support to get permission to create Fabric connections.

  • The specified S-Tag.C-Tag combination <xxx.yyy> is already in use.

    • Action: Provide a different S-Tag.C-Tag combination.

  • The specified VLAN ID is already in use.

    • Action: Provide a valid VLAN ID.

  • Connection Request Error

    • Action: You do not have permissions to create a connection over Equinix Fabric.

  • Request Error

    • Action: Follow the instructions onscreen.

  • You do not have Equinix Cloud Exchange ports in the region you’ve selected for Equinix Precision Time.

    • Action - If you require the selected region, contact your Equinix Account Executive to order a new port. Alternatively, request access to existing ports in that region.

  • You do not have any Equinix Cloud Exchange ports/primary ports/secondary ports for the selected metro and/or IBX.

    • Action: Contact your Equinix Account Manager to order a new port (primary or secondary). Alternatively, request access to existing ports for the metro.

  • You do not have any primary/secondary Network Edge devices for the selected metro and/or IBX.

    • Action: Contact your Equinix Account Manager to order a new primary or secondary device. Alternatively, request access to existing devices for the metro.

  • You do not have any available interfaces on the primary/secondary device.

    • Action: Ensure an interface is available. For details, go to the Customer portal.

Timing Service​

Before you begin troubleshooting, ensure that you are registered and signed into the Customer portal. For details, see Prerequisites.

Login and access issues​

Precision Time home page not displayed after login. If the Precision Time home page does not appear after entering credentials, the issue may be caused by cached browser data. Clear the browser cache and try again. If the issue persists, see Opening a Support Case.

Connecting to the Precision Time time servers​

  • If service is unavailable, wait 15 minutes, then check the connection status in the Customer Portal. If not Provisioned, contact Customer Support.

  • Try to ping the Precision Time primary server. Check for a foreign MAC address on the network device directly connected to the Equinix Fabric port.

    note

    Valid MAC addresses are Equinix Fabric MAC address + your MAC addresses. Anything else is a foreign address. The presence of a foreign MAC address indicates that your client network has established a connection with the Precision Time primary server. There should also be a MAC address of the network device, as learned from the Precision Time VLAN, or another network device learning through an Equinix Fabric port. For more on pinging, see Network Topology.

    1. If there is no foreign MAC address on your network device, contact Customer Support as outlined on the Support page.

    2. If you can successfully ping the Precision Time primary server, configure your time client and try to synchronize with Precision Time.

    3. If you cannot ping the Precision Time primary server:

      • Use show lldp neighbored ethernet X to return the MAC address of the Equinix Fabric network device via LLDP on the interface directly connected to the Equinix Fabric port.
      • Use show mac address-table vlan X to return the MAC address of the Precision Time network device on the VLAN, which is directly connected to the Equinix Fabric port.
      • Be aware that some Ethernet frame exchanges must be initiated with a ping.

    4. Verify your port connection. For a description of Dot1Q and QinQ port connections, see Prerequisites.

  • If Precision Time servers cannot be reached, check the configuration of the Equinix Fabric port. For aggregated ports, configure the connected device with a link aggregate or port channel as required by the device.

  • If the Precision Time primary server still does not respond, contact Customer Support.

The client is correctly configured, but time synchronization does not occur.​

Ensure that your PTP or NTP configuration is correctly configured for your Equinix Precision Time service. See Sample Configurations for PTP service configurations.

If you have a routing/switching device directly connected to the Equinix Fabric Port, and this device is configured as a Boundary Clock (BC), then the PTP VLAN configuration could be causing a problem.

EF ports are provisioned as the trunk with VLAN ID tags. The BC ports of the routing/switching device must support and be configured with PTP VLAN tagging. For example: ptp vlan 300.

Support for the PTP VLAN depends on the device brand, model, and firmware.

Timing accuracy is incorrect​

If you suspect the accuracy of your time signal is off, collect the time-stamp logs and file a Support Case as described in Support.

NTP RefID value is blank​

In Precision Time, the NTP RefID field may appear as null or blank. This behavior is expected. A blank RefID does not affect time accuracy or service quality.

Stratum 1 NTP servers put their time source (such as GPS) in the RefID field, but Precision Time controls the time a bit differently than a standard Stratum 1 server. Precision Time manages the traceable time sync outside the NTP service. This means that Precision Time doesn’t have a refclock, even though its time is in sync.

This means Precision Time achieves better redundancy through the White Rabbit feeds that synchronize our Timing Servers that provide the service. Also, Precision Time can isolate the services going to each Precision Time user to ensure that their traffic is kept private. The null RefID is just a side effect of that.

Ping/ICMP recovery delay during failover​

During NTP or PTP failover, Ping/ICMP recovery may be delayed due to network convergence behavior.

In environments using redundant connections, recovery time is influenced by factors such as ARP cache timeouts, MAC learning, and failover behavior on client-side devices (for example, Top-of-Rack switches with active/standby configurations).

Typical observations:

  • Ping/ICMP recovery may take approximately 2–3 seconds in standard failover scenarios.
  • Recovery time may increase depending on ARP cache expiration and network convergence timing.

Contributing factors include:

  • ARP cache timeout behavior
  • MAC address learning during failover
  • Client device failover timing (for example, TOR switchover)
  • Network configuration, including interface states and protocols

Equinix Fabric does not support Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), and enabling STP on connected devices may introduce additional delay during state transitions. Disabling STP on Fabric-connected ports is recommended.

These factors affect ICMP response during failover but do not impact time synchronization accuracy, as Precision Time protocols account for network convergence and delay.

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