What essential factor should be configured alongside FortiAnalyzer to ensure accurate time stamps in logs?

To ensure accurate time stamps in logs generated by FortiAnalyzer, configuring Network Time Protocol (NTP) is essential. NTP is a networking protocol used to synchronize the clocks of computers and other devices within a network. When FortiAnalyzer is configured to use NTP, it can maintain accurate time synchronization with reliable time servers on the internet or within a local network. This synchronization is crucial for several reasons: it ensures that all logs are time-stamped accurately across different devices, facilitates the correlation of events across a distributed network, and helps maintain compliance with time-sensitive regulations.

Accurate timestamps are fundamental for effective log analysis, incident response, and forensics, as they allow administrators to trace the sequence of events accurately. If the system clock of FortiAnalyzer is not synchronized using NTP, discrepancies can occur in log entries, leading to confusion and misinterpretation of events.

Aligning FortiAnalyzer's time settings with proper NTP ensures that, regardless of location or the variances in system clocks across multiple devices, all logs and network events are recorded with the correct timestamps.