Time mysteriously moving forward on 700 series

[Gregory Ardoin]

I am working on a 700series running HP-UX 10.20, the problem is that the time moves forward slowly. Can not find out what is causing it to skip forward. Has any one seen anything simular? This 700 is used to run a predictive dialer.

[Frederic Sevestre · Accepted solution]

Hi,

You should synchronise your server time to an other server using NTP.

Regards,
Fr??d??ric

[Michael Tully]

If you have another time source that you syncronise with, you best bet is to use it. I've seen many systems that just do not hold the time well. Using NTP can assist you.
have a look here:

http://www.ntp.org

Regards
Michael
"When I have trouble spelling, it's called fat finger syndrome"

[Bill Hassell]

The time of day clock used in most computers is quite inaccurate compared to consumer watches. Unlike wall clocks that keep time by looking at the frequency of the power line, computers usually run a simple crystal clock that can drift with age and temperature.

As mentioned, the correct way to keep all computers locked onto atomic clock standards is to use NTP. There are several threads in the forums regarding setting up NTP. It is very simple for HP-UX except the LAN acess...your network administrator must allow NTP through the firewall. Actually, many netadmins will (or can be persuaded) to setup the firewall as an NTP server for your company.

[Carlo Henrico_1]

Gregory

See this for some very useful info particularly regarding crystal oscillator driven time generators.

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x4d9493e260b0d611abdb0090277a778c,00.html

Good luck

Carlo

[Gregory Ardoin]

Thanks everyone. Your messages gave me a starting point. I will be researching NTP but this site has a firewall and I know will not budge. They have also had temperature problems in the past so that's one avenue to discuss. Meanwhile, I will experiment with NTP and date -a which I found in a link Carlo supplied. Again, thanks all.

Greg

[A. Clay Stephenson]

While NTP is the real answer (and there are no security risks associated with NTP), I suggest that you check Patches->Firmware->CPU. There are a number of fixes to firmware correct the real-time clock glitches and your model might be one of them.

[John Bolene]

If you can't sync to an external source, at least you can sync all the machines to one that runs pretty close to normal time.

At least they would all have the same time.

On my machines, several run seconds fast per day and several run seconds slow per day. I have a few that run real close to the actual time within a few hundredths of a second each day.

I can tell that by looking at the ntp sync times.

[Bill Hassell]

Another alternative is to purchase a GPS time source. Most models are not as accurate as atomic clock sources on the net but as mentioned, one machine can be the primary source and the rest synced to that machine. Note that ntpdate -B will accomplish the same feature as the date option except it slews the clock to match the time reference. ntpdate -B is a patch for NTP so check your man pages to see that the option exists.