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networking:ntp

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NTP

NTP Timezones

Public NTP Pools

There is a dedicated page for public NTP servers.

Infoblox NTP

There is a dedicated page to Infoblox NTP.

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

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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