An IT administrator attempts to join a ClearPass server to an Active Directory domain.

Manual time setting is a temporary fix and will inevitably drift. The best practice for any distributed system, especially one relying on Kerberos and Active Directory, is to sync all components to the same NTP (Network Time Protocol) source . By pointing both the ClearPass servers and the Domain Controllers to the same authoritative clock, the administrator ensures that the time difference remains near zero, preventing domain join failures and ensuring certificate validity and log accuracy across the entire infrastructure.