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networking:ntp

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NTP

There is a dedicated page to Infoblox NTP.

It is best to use pool.ntp.org as an NTP server. This will find the closest available servers for you.

Also

  • pool.ntp.org
  • 0.pool.ntp.org
  • 1.pool.ntp.org
  • 2.pool.ntp.org
  • 3.pool.ntp.org

More specific are:

  • ntp0.ja.net (Stratum 1)
  • ntp1.npl.co.uk (Stratum 2)
  • time.cloudflare.com (Stratum 3)
  • uk.pool.ntp.org
  • 0.uk.pool.ntp.org
  • 1.uk.pool.ntp.org
  • 2.uk.pool.ntp.org
  • 3.uk.pool.ntp.org
  • europe.pool.ntp.org
  • 0.europe.pool.ntp.org
  • 1.europe.pool.ntp.org
  • 2.europe.pool.ntp.org
  • 3.europe.pool.ntp.org

The 0, 1, 2 and 3.pool.ntp.org names point to a random set of servers that will change every hour.

Testing Windows NTP

You can test NTP manually using Windows using the following command (where 192.168.1.1 is the IP of the NTP server).

w32tm /stripchart /dataonly /computer:192.168.1.1

Resynchronize the clock

w32tm /resync

Show current timezone settings

w32tm /tz

List external NTP servers (peers)

w32tm /query /peers

REMEMBER It is important to note that W32Time will only actively synchronize with one time source at a time, even though you are able to list more than one time source. (source)

Most NTP implementations would poll all the servers to choose the best sample, but as of Server 2008, Windows doesn't. That may have changed since then, but it isn't very documented.

w32tm /config /manualpeerlist:0.nl.pool.ntp.org,1.nl.pool.ntp.org,2.nl.pool.ntp.org,3.nl.pool.ntp.org,0x1 /syncfromflags:MANUAL /reliable:yes /update ; net stop w32time ; net start w32time ; w32tm /query /peers /verbose
w32tm /config /manualpeerlist:time.cloudflare.com,0x1 /syncfromflags:MANUAL /reliable:yes /update ; net stop w32time ; net start w32time ; w32tm /query /peers /verbose

Set Linux Time

sudo date -s "22 JUN 2020 13:11:30"

Check Status

Check status of NTP on Ubuntu 16.04+

timedatectl status

If NTP is not on, try the following command

sudo timedatectl set-ntp on

NTP Servers

List of Stratum 1 servers

National Physics Laboratory hosts two public “Stratum 2” servers. This means their servers sync directly to atomic clocks.

DO NOT configure your system to use Google Public NTP together with non-leap-smearing NTP servers. e.g. do not combine Google NTP with Cloudflare NTP as they do not implement leap smearing. Smearing is used by Google, AWS, and Facebook NTP servers but not Cloudflare.

Operator Server FQDN Server IP Stratum RefID Source Type or FQDN Delay Location Supports iBurst
Cloudflare time.cloudflare.com 162.159.200.1 3 10.21.8.19 Internal Cloudflare? 13.080 UK
Cloudflare time.cloudflare.com 162.159.200.123 3 10.21.8.19 Internal Cloudflare? 13.896 UK
Microsoft time.windows.com 51.145.123.29 3 25.66.230.5 Internal Microsoft? 13.896 UK
Zen Internet ntp0.zen.co.uk 212.23.8.6 2 195.66.241.3 ntp1.linx.net 11.642
Zen Internet ntp1.zen.co.uk 212.23.10.129 2 85.199.214.99 server1.quickdrivingtestcancellations.net 16.948 UK
National Physics Laboratory ntp1.npl.co.uk 139.143.5.30 2 139.143.45.169 ? 16.457 UK
National Physics Laboratory ntp2.npl.co.uk 139.143.5.31 2 139.143.45.169 ? 17.329 UK
Manchester University ntp2a.mcc.ac.uk 130.88.202.49 2 193.62.22.66 ntp0.ja.net 22.581 UK
Manchester University ntp2b.mcc.ac.uk 130.88.203.13 2 130.88.203.13 ntp0.ja.net 22.282 UK
Manchester University ntp2c.mcc.ac.uk 130.88.200.6 2 193.62.22.66 ntp0.ja.net 22.135 UK
Manchester University ntp2d.mcc.ac.uk 130.88.212.143 2 193.62.22.74 ntp1.ja.net 22.771 UK
JANET, Harwell ntp0.ja.net 193.62.22.66 1 .MSF. MSF Radio Clock Receiver 15.981 UK
JANET, Harwell ntp1.ja.net 193.62.22.74 1 .MRS. N/A 26.042 UK
JANET, Harwell ntp2.ja.net 193.62.22.98 2 193.62.22.74 ntp1.ja.net 22.849 UK
JANET, Harwell ntp3.ja.net 193.62.22.90 1 .PPS. N/A 26.305 UK
JANET, Harwell ntp4.ja.net 193.62.22.82 1 .DCFa. DCF77 17.528 UK
Google time.google.com time1-time4 1 Yes
Google time1.google.com 216.239.35.0 1 .GOOG. N/A 20.393 Yes
Google time2.google.com 216.239.35.4 1 .GOOG. N/A 20.399 Yes
Google time3.google.com 216.239.35.8 1 .GOOG. N/A 20.514 Yes
Google time4.google.com 216.239.35.12 1 .GOOG. N/A 22.899 Yes
Facebook time.facebook.com time1-time5 1 Yes
Facebook time1.facebook.com 129.134.28.123 1 .FB… N/A 25.595 Yes
Facebook time2.facebook.com 129.134.29.123 1 .FB… N/A 16.803 Yes
Facebook time3.facebook.com 129.134.25.123 1 .FB… N/A 12.037 Yes
Facebook time4.facebook.com 129.134.26.123 1 .FB… N/A 18.341 Yes
Facebook time5.facebook.com 129.134.27.123 1 .FB… N/A 16.546 Yes
Apple time.apple.com 17.253.108.253 (and others) 1 .SHM. 17.343 Yes
Apple time.euro.apple.com 17.253.34.125 (and others) 1 .SHM. 9.889 Yes
Leo Bodnar Electronics ntp1.leontp.com 51.155.16.62 1 .GPS. N/A 36.932 UK
Leo Bodnar Electronics ntp5.leontp.com 85.199.214.98 1 .GPS. N/A 16.523 UK
Leo Bodnar Electronics ntp6.leontp.com 85.199.214.99 1 .GPS. N/A 15.949 UK
Leo Bodnar Electronics ntp7.leontp.com 85.199.214.100 1 .GPS. N/A 16.002 UK
Leo Bodnar Electronics ntp8.leontp.com 85.199.214.101 1 .GPS. N/A 16.595 UK
Leo Bodnar Electronics ntp9.leontp.com 85.199.214.102 1 .GPS. N/A 15.965 UK
Xentex IT Solutions ntp.xtx.cloud 81.133.66.177 1 .PPS. N/A 24.301 UK

More information on Google's NTP offering can be found here. Google 'smear' a leap second over the course of a the hour either side of the leap second. Do not mix NTP servers that 'smear' and NTP servers that do not 'smear'.

Google uses its own NTP servers (see above) for its public DNS servers (see below). If you cannot configure multiple servers, time.google.com will automatically select an appropriate Google server nearby.

Timezones

Refid

From here.

Reference ID (refid) is a 32-bit code identifying the particular server or reference clock. The interpretation depends on the value in the stratum field.

For packet stratum 0 (unspecified or invalid), this is a four-character ASCII [RFC1345] string, called the “kiss code”, used for debugging and monitoring purposes.

For stratum 1 (reference clock), this is a four-octet, left-justified, zero-padded ASCII string assigned to the reference clock. The authoritative list of Reference Identifiers is maintained by IANA; however, any string beginning with the ASCII character “X” is reserved for unregistered experimentation and development. The identifiers in Figure 12 have been used as ASCII identifiers:

+------+----------------------------------------------------------+
| ID   | Clock Source                                             |
+------+----------------------------------------------------------+
| GOES | Geosynchronous Orbit Environment Satellite               |
| GPS  | Global Position System                                   |
| GAL  | Galileo Positioning System                               |
| PPS  | Generic pulse-per-second                                 |
| IRIG | Inter-Range Instrumentation Group                        |
| WWVB | LF Radio WWVB Ft. Collins, CO 60 kHz                     |
| DCF  | LF Radio DCF77 Mainflingen, DE 77.5 kHz                  |
| HBG  | LF Radio HBG Prangins, HB 75 kHz                         |
| MSF  | LF Radio MSF Anthorn, UK 60 kHz                          |
| JJY  | LF Radio JJY Fukushima, JP 40 kHz, Saga, JP 60 kHz       |
| LORC | MF Radio LORAN C station, 100 kHz                        |
| TDF  | MF Radio Allouis, FR 162 kHz                             |
| CHU  | HF Radio CHU Ottawa, Ontario                             |
| WWV  | HF Radio WWV Ft. Collins, CO                             |
| WWVH | HF Radio WWVH Kauai, HI                                  |
| NIST | NIST telephone modem                                     |
| ACTS | NIST telephone modem                                     |
| USNO | USNO telephone modem                                     |
| PTB  | European telephone modem                                 |
| MRS  | Multi Reference Sources                                  |
+------+----------------------------------------------------------+
REFID ATOM: 	with ATOM PPS
REFID DCFa: 	DCF77 with amplitude modulation
REFID DCFp: 	DCF77 with phase modulation)/pseudo random phase modulation
REFID GPSs: 	GPS (with shared memory access - Meinberg)
REFID GPSi: 	GPS (with interrupt based access - Meinberg)
REFID GLNs: 	GPS/GLONASS (with shared memory access - Meinberg)
REFID GLNi: 	GPS/GLONASS (with interrupt based access - Meinberg)
REFID LCL: 	Undisciplined local clock
REFID LOCL: 	Undisciplined local clock
  • .LOCL. means it is the local system clock
  • .GOOG. means it is using one of Google's time clocks
  • .FB… means it is using Facebook time servers
  • .MRS. is a multi-reference clock
  • .INIT. means that the NTP server has not yet been reached since being configured in Grid NTP settings.
  • .SHM. means Shared Memory Driver

Burst and iBurst

Using the burst option against a public server is considered abuse. Do not use this option with public NTP servers. Use it only for applications within your own organization.

Burst and iBurst are only relevant if the NTP Servers you are synchronising to actually support these features, if not they can be switched off.

The 'burst' option is used to increase the average quality of time offset statistics. At every poll interval, when the NTP server responds, the system will send a burst of up to eight packets instead of the usual one packet. For use with the server command to improve the average quality of the time-offset calculations as well as accurately measure jitter with long poll intervals.

The 'iburst' option is used to improve the time taken for initial synchronization. When the NTP server is unreachable, the NTP client sends a burst of eight packets instead of the usual one packet and then shorten the time until the first sync. The packet spacing is normally 2 seconds. The iburst mode continues to send frequent NTP queries until the server responds and time synchronization starts. After the first minute, the iburst mode typically synchronizes the clock so that queries need to be sent at intervals of 64 seconds or more.

Microsoft only support Simple Network Time Protocol (sntp) which is compatible with NTP clients but does not offer all the functionality of NTP (including Burst and iBurst). Microsoft servers will just ignore the burst and iburst options.

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