Exadata: ILOM NTP change / fix

A recent cell patching showed me this error during the pre-requisites phase:

cel01: ILOM use NTP servers "disabled" must match "enabled" in /opt/oracle.cellos/cell.conf              : FAILED
cel01: ILOM first NTP server 0.0.0.0 must have non-empty value                                           : FAILED

This was due to a bad NTP configuration on the ILOM:

[root@db01 ~]# ssh cel01-ilom
Password:
Hostname: cel01
-> show /sp/clients/ntp
/SP/clients/ntp
    Targets:
        server
    Properties:         <===== nothing here
->

You can set the NTP servers as below:

-> set /SP/clients/ntp/server/1 address=10.11.12.13
Set 'address' to '10.11.12.13'
-> set /SP/clients/ntp/server/2 address=10.11.12.14
Set 'address' to '10.11.12.14'
->

And a quick check to verify the setting:

-> show /sp/clients/ntp/server/1
/SP/clients/ntp/server/1
    Targets:
    Properties:
        address = 10.11.12.13   <===== good       
-> show /sp/clients/ntp/server/2
/SP/clients/ntp/server/2
    Targets:
    Properties:
        address = 10.11.12.14   <===== good
->

This is good but not enough as we also have to check that the use of NTP is enabled:

-> show /SP/clock usentpserver
/SP/clock
    Targets:
    Properties:
        usentpserver = disabled     <===== disabled (bad)
->

Let's enable it:

-> set /SP/clock usentpserver=enabled
Set 'usentpserver' to 'enabled'
-> show /SP/clock usentpserver
/SP/clock
    Targets:
    Properties:
        usentpserver = enabled     <===== enabled (good)
->

An easy and 100% online fix !