A systems administrator is troubleshooting intermittent authentication failures for users trying to access a Linux server recently joined to a Windows Active Directory domain. Users report "Access Denied" errors when connecting to network shares and "Authentication Failed" when using SSH with domain credentials. The administrator has already verified basic network connectivity and DNS resolution to the domain controllers. Which of the following commands should the administrator run to investigate the most probable cause of these Kerberos-related issues?
The correct answer is timedatectl. Kerberos, the authentication protocol used by Active Directory, is highly sensitive to time differences between clients and servers. If the time difference, or clock skew, between the Linux server and the domain controllers exceeds the maximum tolerance (typically five minutes), authentication requests will fail. The timedatectl command allows an administrator to quickly view the system's current time, timezone, and whether Network Time Protocol (NTP) synchronization is active and successful, making it the most effective first step to diagnose a suspected clock skew issue.
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Why is Kerberos sensitive to time synchronization?
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What does the `timedatectl` command do?
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What role does Network Time Protocol (NTP) play in Active Directory environments?
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Why is time synchronization crucial for Kerberos authentication?
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How does the `timedatectl` command help in diagnosing clock skew issues?
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What is NTP, and how does it ensure accurate time synchronization?
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What is Kerberos, and why is it sensitive to time differences?
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What does the `timedatectl` command do and how does it help troubleshoot clock skew?
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What is NTP, and why is it important for Active Directory integration?