Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) Practice Exam 2025 - Free CCNA Practice Questions and Study Guide

The command needed to set the time on an NTP server is "clock set HOUR.MINUTE.SECOND MONTH DAY YEAR." This command allows an administrator to manually configure the current date and time on the network device to align with the actual time. It involves specifying the hour, minute, second, month, day, and year in a structured format, ensuring precision in timekeeping which is essential for various network operations, including logging, time-stamping, and synchronization with other devices.

This command is particularly important in environments relying on Network Time Protocol (NTP), as a properly set time is critical for the NTP operation to function effectively. It ensures that the server can accurately synchronize time with other devices configured as NTP peers or clients, maintaining consistency across the network.

The other options do not represent valid commands for setting time on an NTP server. For example, "set time" and "sync time" are not recognized commands in Cisco IOS for time configuration, and "ntp time" does not pertain to manually setting the time but rather would relate to configuring NTP settings without actually setting the device's clock.