Description: The administrative timing source for the system. This variable is used to select the desired timing source to be either primary, secondary or tertiary. Setting this variable will cause the system to change to the specified timing source, provided it is currently available. Setting this value to error(4) is not allowed.

The system periodically monitors the status of the three timing sources. If the systems current timing source fails, the system will automatically downgrade to the next timing source. If the system is configured to automatically upgrade (juniSystemTimingAutoUpgrade is set to enable(1)) the system will switch back to the timing source indicated by this variable when it becomes available.

A timing source failure can be detected by comparing the operational and administrative timing sources. If they are not equal, the system has swapped timing sources because the administratively set timing source is in the error state.