vicidial there is a time synchronization problem

Ajit Kumar

7 Oct, 2012

Topic: vicidial - time synchronization issue

Time synchronization problem is one of the common issue in vicidial where agents faces during the login to the agent portal. Due to various time related issue the vicidial will popup with the below alert message in the agent pane.

"There is a Time synchronization problem with your system, please tell your system administrator"

What is Vicidial?

Vicidial is an enterprise class, open source, contact center suite in use by many large call centers around the world. VICIdial has a full featured predictive dialer. It is capable of inbound, outbound, and blended phone call handling.

Root cause for the Vicidial Time sync issue

The vicidial is using the asterisk MeetMe conference module for the agent sessions, These MeetMe conference module requires timing resources like DAHDI, ZAPTEL, or hardware based module like sangoma USB timer , if they are not installed or loaded properly this alert will be displayed

Other Possible causes are

Forget to update the new IP address in the vicidial database

Wrong ip set in DB even after IP updated using the vicidial script

System Timezone not in sync with DB,PHP

Vicidial System Settings - wrong GMT selected

How to solve vicidial time synchronization issue

Follow the below listed troubleshooting steps to resolve vicidial time sync issue.

Troubleshoot 1 : Dahdi driver issue

Make sure the dahdi driver is installed properly by running the below command in the linux shell

dahdi_cfg -v

The above command will display the below result

DAHDI Version: 2.6
Echo Canceller(s): HWEC
Configuration
======================
Channel map:
0 channels to configure.

If the above command displays error like dahdi not found error

then reinstall the latest dahdi driver

Once latest dadhi reinstalled then run the below commands to load the dahdi drivers

modprobe dahdi
dahdi_cfg -vvvv
asterisk -rx "module unload chan_dahdi.so"
asterisk -rx "module load chan_dahdi.so"
reboot

Now login as agent and check whether the problem arises, if not follow other troubleshoots

Note **

For those who are using the Telephony cards like digium, sangoma follow the below links

How to configure digium cards

How to configure sangoma E1 cards

Troubleshoot 2: Time Difference between DB,PHP,Asterisk

Log in to your vicidial admin portal and navigate to the report section now scroll down the bottom you can see the server details, click the + (plus) next to the server column as shown below.

once the plus symbol clicked you will see the detailed view of the server details like asterisk server, db server, php -webserver and there current date and time as shown below.

As you may notice in the above picture all the three sections shows same time, which means time is synced properly between telephony, webserver and db server.

if any one of the sections shows wrong date and time compared to the other entities, as shown below, you may face the vicidial time synchronization error.

as you many notice my PHP time is different compared to DB and Telephony, if you face similar issue follow the below steps to resolve the vicidial time sync issue

Set Proper Timezone in Linux OS

To check the current date, time, Timezone set in the server type below command in linux console

date

you can see similar output

[root@centos-s-4vcpu-8gb-nyc1-01 ~]# date
Wed Jul 6 09:02:35 EDT 2022
[root@centos-s-4vcpu-8gb-nyc1-01 ~]#

If the timezone is different run the below command to change the timezone

timedatectl set-timezone America/New_York

The above command supports most of the linux distributions, if not run below commands

cp /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/New_York /etc/localtime
rdate -s time-a.nist.gov
chkconfig ntpd on
ntpdate pool.ntp.org
systemctl restart ntpd

For vicibox users type below command to change the timezone

vicibox-timezone
or
yast timezone

once right timezone set reboot the server once, and check the date and time under reports section as shown above.

Still the linux server shows wrong date and time ,follow the below link for other options to change the date,time and timezone

https://www.striker24x7.com/2012/12/wrong-date-and-time-in-centos-setting.html

Setting the Timezone in PHP file php.ini

If the Report section shows wrong date and time under PHP Time section, follow the below steps to update the right timezone in PHP file that is php.ini

The default location of php.ini file is /etc/php.ini if you are using other linux distributions use the find command to find the actual location of php.ini file

find / -name php.ini

Once the php.ini file location identified, edit the file using vi or nano and uncomment and update the date.timezone value

vi /etc/php.ini

search for line date.timezone =

edit the date.timezone with right timezone.

change ;date.timezone =
to
date.timezone = America/New_York

if you are not able to find the line date.timezone run below command

sed -i 's/\;date.timezone =/date.timezone = America/New_York/g' /etc/php.ini

To check the actual name of your timezone navigate to the below directory and type ls or ll

cd /usr/share/zoneinfo
ls

Finally Reboot the Server once so that DB will be updated with new timezone

reboot

Troubleshoot 3: Vicidial time sync due to Wrong Server IP DB

If the server IP is changed and not updated the new IP in the MySQL database you might face the vicidial time sync issue, you must update the Server IP manually by running the ADMIN_updte_server_ip.pl script

note down the old server ip assigned and follow the below steps

run the below command to force the new ip to update in DB

/usr/share/astguiclient/ADMIN_update_server_ip.pl --old-server_ip=oldipaddress

enter your new ip when it prompts for new ip.

note: if your db is update with ip as 127.0.0.1:mask2 then run below command

/usr/share/astguiclient/ADMIN_update_server_ip.pl --old-server_ip=127.0.0.1:mask2

Troubleshoot 4: Vicidial Timeclock and system settings

Vicidial system settings also leads to time synchronization error, make sure the post installation configuration of vicidial should configured properly.

Check the below settings and configure accordingly

1. Local GMT under ADMIN > SERVERS

Set the LOCAL GMT value to your matching timezone

In vicidial GMT is calculated in .5 value for example IST GMT is +5:30 in vicidial its +5.50

2. Similarly Set the same GMT value in ADMIN > SYSTEM SETTINGS

set Default Local GMT: -5.00

3. Active Voicemail Server

Navigate to ADMIN > SYSTEM SETTINGS

Make sure Active Telephony server selected for Active voicemail server

4. Asterisk version in Server settings

Wrong asterisk version in vicidial DB will also lead to time synchronization error

Follow the below steps to update the installed asterisk version in the database.

Type the below command to check the asterisk version installed in your vicidial server

asterisk -rx "core show version"
you will get output similar to below
Asterisk 16.17.0-vici built by root @ centos

Here's my asterisk version is 16.17.0-vici, Make sure same version is updated in
ADMIN>SERVER >Asterisk Version: 16.17.0-vici

Note:
you can also set the asterisk with major release number followed by dot X
for example
16.17.0-vici set it as 16.X
13.29.2-vici set it as 13.X
11.22.0-vici set it as 11.X
1.8.23.0-vici set it as 1.8.X

Followed to the asterisk version update in vicidial, you have to rebuild the conf
Navigate to ADMIN > SERVER

Set Rebuild Conf Files: Y

Other Troubleshoot Options

If you have installed vicibox and encounter the time synchronization issue, it might me one of be bug on asterisk manager version mismatch

Conclusion

Hope this article is helpful, for professional support reach me on skype: striker24x7

vicidial there is a time synchronization problem

Topic: vicidial - time synchronization issue

What is Vicidial?

Root cause for the Vicidial Time sync issue