From 7a1b84cec1266cd2f4937ba5640b7d4958e34bb0 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Matthew Hooker Date: Sun, 2 Oct 2016 17:32:57 -0700 Subject: [PATCH 1/2] add some debugging info for if your clock is skewed --- website/source/docs/builders/amazon.html.md | 10 ++++++++++ 1 file changed, 10 insertions(+) diff --git a/website/source/docs/builders/amazon.html.md b/website/source/docs/builders/amazon.html.md index fb724b6c1..085c23c73 100644 --- a/website/source/docs/builders/amazon.html.md +++ b/website/source/docs/builders/amazon.html.md @@ -155,3 +155,13 @@ work, but specifics will depend on your use-case. ] } ``` + +### Checking that system time is current + +Amazon uses the current time as part of the [request signing +process](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/sigv4_signing.html). If +your system clock is too skewed from the current time, your requests might +fail. If you suspect your system's date is wrong, you can compare it against +http://www.time.gov/. On Linux/OS X, you can run the `date` command to get the +current time. If you're on Linux, you can try setting the time with ntp by running +`sudo ntpd -q`. From 24c4ba3bb5fff708c803208cbbb41e4b9b5a459f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Matthew Hooker Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2016 17:36:54 -0700 Subject: [PATCH 2/2] add the error you might see --- website/source/docs/builders/amazon.html.md | 10 +++++++--- 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/website/source/docs/builders/amazon.html.md b/website/source/docs/builders/amazon.html.md index 085c23c73..8c04c86eb 100644 --- a/website/source/docs/builders/amazon.html.md +++ b/website/source/docs/builders/amazon.html.md @@ -161,7 +161,11 @@ work, but specifics will depend on your use-case. Amazon uses the current time as part of the [request signing process](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/sigv4_signing.html). If your system clock is too skewed from the current time, your requests might -fail. If you suspect your system's date is wrong, you can compare it against +fail. If that's the case, you might see an error like this: + + ==> amazon-ebs: Error querying AMI: AuthFailure: AWS was not able to validate the provided access credentials + +If you suspect your system's date is wrong, you can compare it against http://www.time.gov/. On Linux/OS X, you can run the `date` command to get the -current time. If you're on Linux, you can try setting the time with ntp by running -`sudo ntpd -q`. +current time. If you're on Linux, you can try setting the time with ntp by +running `sudo ntpd -q`.