Time Sync Issues with mixed 2000 and XP clients

[danfranklin]

I am currently running a win2k domain with one PDC and 2 BDCs. On the PDC i have set the SNTP to time.windows.com and restarted the time service. after looking at the output of w32tm -once I can see that the time is being resolved correctly and is updating the PDC. When I look at a BDC or a client machine that has time sync issues I use the net time command and it shows the wrong server. I tried forcing the server with net time \\"server name" /set /yes nd the command seems to complete correctly but once you put in the command net time it again shows the wrong server. NTP used to be part of the DHCP options but this has been taken off so It should not be sending out anything to the client machines. We aslo have a login.bat that sets the Net Time to the domain
net time /domain:'domain name' /set /yes which is run off the bdc. this is the server that is showing as the time server. Why is the time server command not showing the PDC?
This is effecting user logons and becoming a bit of a pain now so an help would be much appreciated.

 

[Jpoandl]

If you have members of the domain being Windows 2000 OS or higher, you do not need to configure anything special to get the time service to run properly (except on the PDC emulator server..you need to specify an external time source...but you did this already).

I would remove all NET Time commands in the logon script. (The time is actually synchronized on members of the domain during the boot up. The time needs to be setup properly BEFORE logon. therefore, logon scripts will not help. Kerebos authentication requires accurate timing therefore, this time service is built in to the OS (Win2K and higher).

Get rid of all of your manual NET Time efforts. I looks like the PDC is setup properly. Just get rid of your Net Time forces and reboot the machines...

-later

Joseph L. Poandl
MCSE 2003

If your company is in need of experts to examine technical problems/solutions, please contact

http://www.NJCOMPUTERNETWORKS.com

(Sales@njcomputernetworks.com)

 

[danfranklin]

Thanks. You must have read my mind. I have set the time services on the BDCs to stop and set them to manual and it looks like the whole domain is now in sync. This must be a common problem in a multi server environment as Windows time services start automatically and have caused all the issues on the Domain. After looking through most of the posts I could not see any reference to shutting down Time services on all servers other than the PDC. Worth the mention. Thanks again.

 

[Jpoandl]

No, you misunderstood me.

Although, this may be working, your domain controller rely on the time service to synch thier time with the domain time source.

You solution may work now, but you will run into problems, when your other DC's become out of synch.

I would remove all NET Time commands in the logon script. (The time is actually synchronized on members of the domain during the boot up. The time needs to be setup properly BEFORE logon. therefore, logon scripts will not help. Kerebos authentication requires accurate timing therefore, this time service is built in to the OS (Win2K and higher).

Get rid of all of your manual NET Time efforts. I looks like the PDC is setup properly. Just get rid of your Net Time forces and reboot the machines...

Joseph L. Poandl
MCSE 2003

If your company is in need of experts to examine technical problems/solutions, please contact

http://www.NJCOMPUTERNETWORKS.com

(Sales@njcomputernetworks.com)

 

[icsboi]

Dear Jpoandl,

Thank you for your advice.

And how can I synch DC?

It seems it fail often to synch the time..

Any advice?

Thank you in advance,
Robert