[TriLUG] How to get ntpd to work

[Matt Pusateri]

On Mon, March 21, 2005 2:03 pm, Randall Barlow said:
> Well, I have another time related question.  How do you get ntpd to
> work?  I have it starting up on boot fine (says "OK").  I also have
> the
> ntpd.conf file set up with the line "servers pool.ntp.org" so that it
> picks the servers randomly.  And I also have the line in rc.conf that
> says 'ntpd_flags=""' (without the single quotes...).  However, my
> computer is still behind by about 4 minutes.  Anything I forgot?
>



First does your ntp.drift file exist?  ntpd will usually not start nor
will it create the drift file.  So normally you need to touch the file
first before ntpd will work.

This doesn't fix your problem.  But ntp.org now has 3 sets of rotating
ntp server pools labeled 0, 1, and 2.  and you can also restrict down
to just the US by a us prefix.

So servers would then be.

0.us.pool.ntp.org
1.us.pool.ntp.org
2.us.pool.ntp.org

Also someone correct me if I am wrong, but normally you want more than
1 servers line in your ntpd.conf.  Putting multiple servers lines,
lets ntp query multiple servers and then synchronize time more
efficiently by using some algorithm.  I always heard you want to pull
time from one stratum 1 and two stratum two servers.  But is
definitely a better idea to pull time from multiple servers.

Also if you are not setting any flags in the rc.conf file for ntp why
bother having the line at all unless you are trying to negate out some
default flags.



Matt