A question about Timesync configuration

[cderow]

Hello,
At one point, in the past, one of my servers would loose communications with the rest of my servers then reconnect. Browsing through the server console, I realized the time was not syncing correctly with other servers. I went into Monitor/Server Parameters/Time and saw that the Configured Sources option was set to Off. I turned this on and everything seems to be fine.

A couple of days ago, I was doing a check of my other servers and saw that the Configured Sources option was set to Off on these servers, however, there seems to be no timesync issues or communication errors on these servers. My question is, for Netware servers to communicate and sync with one another, does this line have to be set to On, or does it depend on the server?

 

[chuckg0413]

Configured Sources should only be on if you have set a time source in Time Sources. For example on my main server I have Configured Sources on, and have Time Sources set to an IP address for the Naval Obseratory, this causes my main server to time sync with the Naval Obseratory's Atomic clock.

My other servers have time sync set to on and in Time Sources at have the internal (10 dot)IP address of my main server.

Your main server needs to be either primary, or if you are getting an outside time source, as reference. Your other servers need to be set as secondary.

Here is my timesync.cfg from a secondary server:

# TIMESYNC Configuration Parameters

Configured Sources = ON
Directory Tree Mode = ON
Hardware Clock = ON
Polling Count = 3
Polling Interval = 600
Service Advertising = ON
Synchronization Radius = 2000
Type = SECONDARY

# TIMESYNC Configured time source list

TIME SOURCE = 10.x.xx.xx

And here is the one from my main server

# TIMESYNC Configuration Parameters

Configured Sources = ON
Directory Tree Mode = ON
Hardware Clock = ON
Polling Count = 3
Polling Interval = 600
Service Advertising = ON
Synchronization Radius = 2000
Type = REFERENCE

# TIMESYNC Configured time source list

TIME SOURCE = 192.5.41.209:123

HTH
Chuck

 

[cderow]

That answered my question. Thank you.

 

[Jontmke]

I have a question for chuck: If you have the timesync "configured sources = on" then why do you also have the "Hardware Clock = on". Aren't they mutually exclusive? Either you use the hardware clock or a time source, it can't be using both.

Jon

There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge. (Bertrand Russell)

 

[chuckg0413]

Sorry, I pasted my secondary timesync.cfg and just replaced text to reflect my reference settings, and missed the hardware clock setting.

On the reference server the hardware clock should be set to OFF when using an external time source.

On the secondary server, it should be set ON. That way the hardware clock on the secondary server is set to the reference server time.

See the TID at support.novell.com - TID10013084 for some more timesync info.

Chuck

 

[LawnBoy]

While we're on the subject...
My secondary server gives me this error:
"Time synch has been lost after xxx successful polling loops" and then 10 - 20 seconds later "Time synch established".

This was happening once or twice a month, but lately it's been almost every day (but at random intervals, never at the same time of day). The first time I saw this error was the morning after I changed the name of my secondary server.

Configuration or hardware? I'm very sure it's not simply congestion, as it'll happen over the weekend when nobody's on the network.

Thanks for any suggestions,
LawnBoy

 

[pray11342]

Lawnboy,

I get the same messages on my single server, set to REFERENCE.

I assume that it is just TIMESYNC doing its job.

After each Polling Interval, (600 seconds = 10 minutes = 1 polling loop) it checks the computer time against the configured time source. If it finds a difference greater than 2 seconds, it lets you know, then corrects it. If your primary reference on the network has corrected itself, then the secondary references may not agree with it, and they will correct also.

The local computer clock is still being updated. It tends to drift, that is why we need an external source that doesn't drift to check against.




Paul Ray

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