Configure and verify NTP operating in a client and server mode.

Objective 4.2 sits in IP Services, which carries 10% of the CCNA exam. The questions below are original, written from the official objective title above, and each explanation cites the Cisco page it rests on.

Objective title verbatim from the official objectives. Cisco exam page ↗

A worked example

Shown solved, with the whole explanation open: this is what every question here carries.

4-2IP ServicesModerate

SW1 must take time from 10.1.1.5 without that host keeping any time information about SW1.

SW1(config)# ntp peer 10.1.1.5

Which change accomplishes that?

Add the ntp master command in global configurationThe ntp master command makes the switch an authoritative source that distributes time. It answers the opposite requirement and can override valid sources.

Add an ntp access-group serve-only for that hostAn access group grants or denies query privileges by network, subnet or host. It controls who may ask, leaving the association mode as it was.

Add ntp broadcast client on the uplink interfaceBroadcast client mode listens for broadcasts on the local subnet and does no polling, so it cannot be aimed at one named server.

Replace the peer command with ntp server 10.1.1.5Correct · your answerCorrect. Client mode polls the host and gives it nothing to keep.

Correct.

Checked against cisco.com, August 2026

Concept

Association modes differ in who learns from whom. One kind of polling relationship leaves the far end with nothing recorded about the local device, and another is mutual, with both ends holding timing data on each other. The command chosen fixes which of the two runs.

Why D

Pointing at a remote address with ntp peer sets up a symmetric active association, so the far end polls back and retains time-related information about SW1. Naming the same address with ntp server puts SW1 in client mode instead, a client-to-host relationship in which the host uses nothing SW1 sends.

Source

Use the ntp server command to individually specify the time server that you want your networking device to consider synchronizing with and to set your networking device to operate in the client mode.

Cisco: Administering the Device, NTP, checked August 2026

#ntp#client-mode#symmetric-active

Now you: objective 4.2 questions

No account needed. The explanation opens when you answer.

Sample question 1 of 2

4-2IP ServicesModerate

A branch router synchronizes to an upstream NTP server and also answers time requests from local switches. Which role does the router fill in the NTP hierarchy?

Sample question 2 of 2

4-2IP ServicesEasy

Devices across a company must agree on time for log correlation. What does NTP exist to do?

That’s 2 of the full CCNA bank.

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Read the sources

These are the official pages the questions above cite. Reading them is studying the objective from the primary source, which is what the explanations point you toward anyway.

A worked example

Now you: objective 4.2 questions

Read the sources

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