NTP Question

[marvin51796]

ok we have NTP running on our unix servers, 11vi3 patched march2012. we have it configured in the /etc/rc.config.d/netdaemons file and everythign is working fine.

I just want to verify that if we dont do anything with the /etc/ntp.conf it wont interfear with what we already have running?..

thanks for any help.

[Bill Hassell]

If you don't put your ntp servers in ntp.conf, then xntpd won't know where to get the time reference. ntp.conf by itself is 100% comments. I always delete all the comments. (you can always get them back from the original file stored in /usr/newconfig/etc/ntp.conf). Like most network daemons, you should see problems with ntp in syslog.log.

Here is a sample ntp.conf which works if your system has access to the Internet using port 123 (the ntp port):

server 0.north-america.pool.ntp.org
server 1.north-america.pool.ntp.org
server 2.north-america.pool.ntp.org
fudge 127.127.1.1 stratum 10    # localhost if NTP servers fail
driftfile /etc/ntp.drift

Only one or two machines should use this file. The rest can point to these two machines to reduce the load on the external servers. If your data center is setup efficiently, the network firewalls will likely provide ntp services for internal systems.

The log entries for xntpd can be very noisy. Change the log from syslog.log to /var/adm/ntp.log in the netdaemons file:

export NTPDATE_SERVER="0.north-america.pool.ntp.org"
export XNTPD=1
export XNTPD_ARGS="-l /var/adm/xntpd.log"

Refer to www.pool.ntp.org for details about the ntp pool project.