problems with ntpd sync on RHEL3 ES

[James Cooley]

Try commenting out your keys /etc/ntp/keys line if you are not using 
key-based authentication with the ntp servers.  Also, server lines 
usually don't include stratum section, since the client gets the stratum 
from the server, but I could be wrong.  The stratum portion is usually 
used for fudge lines, for when you are setting up a local ntp server.

When you restart ntpd, it first runs an ntpdate against one of your 
servers to sync the clocks, bypassing ntpd for the initial sync, so your 
config files could be wrong, but restarting the server would still bring 
them in sync.

If I'm wrong, my apologies :)

--James Cooley



Gavin McDonald wrote:

>Hi all,
>
>I administer a number of IBM eServers, all of which run 
>RHEL 3 ES, with ntp version 4.1.2-4.EL3.1
>
>The config files, (Sanitized & quoted At the end of this email,)
>are identical on all machines, and identify two windows
>domain controllers as stratum 2 time servers. 
>
>When I start ntpd, by doing a 
> # service ntpd start 
>on each server,  The machines all synchronize correctly, to 
>within seconds of each other, and everything appears fine.
>
>However, after several days, (more than 5, less than 10,)
>the clocks on two of the machines are over five minutes 
>out of sync from the other two.  If I restart ntpd, the
>clocks immediately go back in sync.  This has been happening
>through several "tweaks" of the config files.
>
>Has anyone seen this behaviour before?  The fact that
>restarting ntp brings the clocks into sync seems to
>indicate that the configurations are working, so I am
>truly stumped.  Any help would be appreciated. 
>
>Regards,
>Gavin McDonald.
>
>Config files follow:
>
>(00:52 hostname:~) grep -v ^# /etc/ntp.conf |grep -v ^$
>restrict default nomodify
>restrict 127.0.0.1
>server 192.168.1.50 stratum 2
>server 192.168.1.52 stratum 2
>driftfile /var/lib/ntp/drift
>broadcastdelay  0.008
>keys            /etc/ntp/keys
>
>(00:52 hostname:~) grep -v ^# /etc/ntp/ntpservers |grep -v ^$
>win2kserver0.domain.local
>win2kserver2.domain.local
>clock.redhat.com
>clock2.redhat.com
>
>(00:53 hostname:~) grep -v ^# /etc/ntp/step-tickers |grep -v ^$
>win2kserver0.domain.local
>win2kserver2.domain.local
>
>  
>