set time using sam

[Donald Thaler]

if i want to use sam to set the time on my unix server (11.23), is there anything that shouldn't be running besides cron and my oracle databases. I'm planning to apply some system patches which will require a shutdown -r, and after the system comes up i plan to stop cron, make sure that oracle isn't running, and then set the time back using sam.
Server time is 9 mins faster than the officiale US time.

[Tim Nelson]

typcially ntpdate is run as part of the boot script when xntpd service is started.

ntpdate will reset your clock, no matter how far your clock is, during reboot.

xntpd starts in rc2 typcially before cron so I do not think you have to do anything.

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Donald:

I'd stop your Oracle processes (in your downtime window); then reset the time; then apply your patches and finally reboot.

You don't need SAM to change the date. Use:

# date [-u] [mmddhhmm[[cc]yy]]

...where the '-u' flag specifies the time in UTC as opposed to your localtime. See the 'date' manpages for more information.

You really should be running NTP to avoid situations of time drift. There are innumerable threads here discussing its setup.

Regards!

...JRF...

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi (again) Donald:

For NTP configuration, see chapter-4 here:

http://bizsupport.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c02215026/c02215026.pdf

Regards!

...JRF...[ who despises the new BSC documentation arrangement ]