“time stamp XXX s in the future” messages seen during upgrade

Sometimes during a Junos upgrade, you might see messages like these:

tar: +CONTENTS: time stamp Mar 15 06:28 2015 is 26228139 s in the future
tar: +COMMENT: time stamp Mar 15 06:28 2015 is 26228139 s in the future

This is because the current time on the Juniper device is in the past in comparison to the timestamp of the Junos release to which the device is being upgraded.

Each Junos release has a timestamp of when it was created and the release could not have existed before that.

Seeing the messages is not a problem, it’s just an indication that the device doesn’t have the right time/date.

Below you have an example.

The current time is 15th May 2014 and I will upgrade the device to 14.1X53-D16 that has a timestamp of 15th March 2015:

{master:0}
root@QFX5100> show system uptime
fpc0:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current time: 2014-05-15 16:51:19 UTC
System booted: 2014-05-15 16:25:04 UTC (00:26:15 ago)
Protocols started: 2014-05-15 16:28:44 UTC (00:22:35 ago)
Last configured: 2014-05-15 16:40:59 UTC (00:10:20 ago) by root
 4:51PM  up 26 mins, 2 users, load averages: 0.01, 0.06, 0.15

{master:0}
root@QFX5100>

Once you start the upgrade, you will start seeing these messages:

{master:0}
root@QFX5100> request system software add /var/tmp/jinstall-qfx-5-flex-14.1X53-D16.2-domestic-signed.tgz
tar: +CONTENTS: time stamp Mar 15 06:28 2015 is 26228139 s in the future
tar: +COMMENT: time stamp Mar 15 06:28 2015 is 26228139 s in the future
tar: +DESC: time stamp Mar 15 06:28 2015 is 26228139 s in the future
tar: +INSTALL: time stamp Mar 15 06:28 2015 is 26228139 s in the future
tar: jinstall-vjunos-14.1X53-D16.2-domestic.tgz: time stamp Mar 15 06:27 2015 is 26228089 s in the future
tar: jinstall-vjunos-14.1X53-D16.2-domestic.tgz.md5: time stamp Mar 15 06:27 2015 is 26228104 s in the future
tar: jinstall-vjunos-14.1X53-D16.2-domestic.tgz.sha1: time stamp Mar 15 06:28 2015 is 26228106 s in the future
tar: jinstall-vjunos-14.1X53-D16.2-domestic.tgz.sig: time stamp Mar 15 06:28 2015 is 26228107 s in the future
tar: certs.pem: time stamp Mar 15 06:27 2015 is 26228095 s in the future
Verified jinstall-vjunos-14.1X53-D16.2-domestic.tgz signed by PackageDevelopmentVJunos_13_2_0
tar: +COMMENT: time stamp Mar 15 06:27 2015 is 26228064 s in the future
tar: +CONTENTS: time stamp Mar 15 06:27 2015 is 26228064 s in the future
tar: +DEINSTALL: time stamp Mar 15 06:27 2015 is 26228064 s in the future
tar: +DESC: time stamp Mar 15 06:27 2015 is 26228064 s in the future
tar: +INSTALL: time stamp Mar 15 06:27 2015 is 26228064 s in the future
tar: +REQUIRE: time stamp Mar 14 13:14 2015 is 26166077 s in the future
tar: chef-bundle-14.1X53-D16.2.i386.tgz: time stamp Mar 15 06:27 2015 is 26228062 s in the future
tar: jpuppet-14.1X53-D16.2-i386.tgz: time stamp Mar 15 06:27 2015 is 26228062 s in the future
tar: metatags: time stamp Mar 14 13:12 2015 is 26165981 s in the future
tar: pkgtools.tgz: time stamp Mar 14 07:57 2015 is 26147093 s in the future
tar: vjunos-14.1X53-D16.2.tgz: time stamp Mar 15 06:27 2015 is 26228029 s in the future
tar: vjunos-install.sh: time stamp Mar 15 06:27 2015 is 26228032 s in the future
Adding vjunos...
Saving contents of boot area prior to installation

WARNING:     This package will load JUNOS 14.1X53-D16.2 software.
WARNING:     It will save JUNOS configuration files, and SSH keys
WARNING:     (if configured), but erase all other files and information
WARNING:     stored on this machine.  It will attempt to preserve dumps
WARNING:     and log files, but this can not be guaranteed.  This is the
WARNING:     pre-installation stage and all the software is loaded when
WARNING:     you reboot the system.

POST-INSTALL...
Saving the config files ...
NOTICE: uncommitted changes have been saved in /var/db/config/juniper.conf.pre-install
Copying jpuppet pkg to /var/sw/pkg
Copying chef pkg to /var/sw/pkg
Pushing installation package to host...
tar: jinstall-qfx-5-flex-14.1X53-D16.2-domestic.img.gz: time stamp 2015-03-14 14:25:17 is 26170215.693317039 s in the future
tar: metatags: time stamp 2015-03-15 06:27:00 is 26227902.431046504 s in the future
Extracting jinstall-qfx-5-flex-14.1X53-D16.2-domestic ...
Install jinstall-qfx-5-flex-14.1X53-D16.2-domestic completed
Install jinstall-vjunos completed

WARNING:     A REBOOT IS REQUIRED TO LOAD THIS SOFTWARE CORRECTLY. Use the
WARNING:     'request system reboot' command when software installation is
WARNING:     complete. To abort the installation, do not reboot your system,
WARNING:     instead use the 'request system software delete jinstall'
WARNING:     command as soon as this operation completes.

Saving state for rollback ...

{master:0}
root@QFX5100> request system reboot
Reboot the system ? [yes,no] (no) yes

Shutdown at Thu May 15 16:59:02 2014.
[pid 37110]

{master:0}

*** System shutdown message from root@QFX5100 ***

System going down in 1 minute


root@QFX5100>

I hope you will find this article useful and in the future when you will see this type of messages, you will know what is the cause and that they do not exhibit any problem.

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Paris ARAU

Paris ARAU is a networking professional with strong background on routing and switching technologies. He is a holder of CCIE R&S and dual JNCIE(SP and ENT). The day to day work allows him to dive deeply in networking technologies. Part of the continuously training, he is focusing on Software Defined Network and cloud computing.

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