topic Interpreting NTPQ output in Operating System - HP-UX

Interpreting NTPQ output

Yogeeraj_1 — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 02:03:51 GMT

Dear experts!

I recently has a thread which permitted me to troubleshoot my timeserver problem (http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=947300).
Unfortunately, i am still not at ease with the ntp command and outputs.

As such, can any one please help me interprete the output produced when i run the ntpq command on my server?

Note that, i was previously using time zone GMT04:00 which i have just change to GMT+4 (using set_parms timezone) after which i also had to correct the current time using set_parms datetime.

Below the current output of the "ntpq" command:
# ntpq -p
remote refid st t when poll reach delay offset disp
==============================================================================
*LOCAL(1) LOCAL(1) 10 l 28 64 377 0.00 0.000 10.01
ntptsvr.yd.mu LOCAL(1) 13 u 75 256 377 4.87 -286550 1.46
# date
Thu Sep 1 10:21:49 GMT 2005
# echo $TZ
GMT+4
#

thanking you in advance for all your replies.

kind regards
yogeeraj

Re: Interpreting NTPQ output

Steve Steel — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 02:39:36 GMT

Hi

http://docs.hp.com/en/B2355-90774/ch04s02.html

table 4.7

Steve Steel

Re: Interpreting NTPQ output

Alessandro Pilati — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 02:47:13 GMT

Yogeeraj,
these are some explanation of the output:

REMOTE=the localhost plus peers hosts specified in the configuration files, from which your host will take time sinchronization

Charachter that may be before hostname:
* indicates the current synchronization source.

# indicates that the host is selected for synchronization, but distance from the host to the server exceeds the maximum value.

o indicates that the host is selected for synchronization, and the PPS signal is in use.

+ indicates the host included in the final synchronization selection set.

x indicates that the host is the designated false ticker by the intersection algorithm.

. indicates that the host is selected from the end of the candidate list.

- indicates a host discarded by the clustering algorithm.

blank indicates a host is discarded due to high stratum and/or failed sanity checks.

REFID=the current source of synchronization for the remote host

STRATUM=the stratum level of the remote host

T=types available
l local (such as a GPS clock)

u unicast (this is the common type)

m multicast

b broadcast

- netaddr (usually 0)

WHEN=number of seconds passed since the remote host response

POLL=polling interval to the remote host, defined with the "minpoll" value in ntp.conf file

REACH=indicates how successful attempts to reach the server are. This is an 8-bit shift register with the most recent probe in the 2^0 position. The value 001 indicates the most recent probe was answered, while 357 indicates one probe was not answered. The value 377 indicates that all the recent probes have been answered.

DELAY= (round trip time) indicates the time (in milliseconds) taken by the reply packet to return in response, to a query sent by the server.

OFFSET=indicates the time difference (in milliseconds) between the server's clock and the client's clock. When this number exceeds 128, and the message synchronization lost appears in the log file

DISP=indicates the difference in the offset measurement between two samples. This is an error-bound estimate. The dispersion is a primary measure of the network service quality.

Hope this helps.
Rgds,
Alex

Re: Interpreting NTPQ output

Alessandro Pilati — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 02:53:05 GMT

Take also these other links:

http://docs.hp.com/en/B2355-90774/ch04s03.html

http://www.meinberg.de/english/info/ntp.htm#ntp_status

http://www.lnf.infn.it/computing/Unix/ntp/debug.html

Regards,
Alex

Re: Interpreting NTPQ output

Yogeeraj_1 — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 02:56:25 GMT

hi,

thank you all for your quick responses, can anyone help me clarify the following line:
LOCAL(1)
13
u
605
1024
377
4.79
-286549
19.39

(nb. translated to vertical for clarity)

thanking you in advance

kind regards
yogeeraj

Re: Interpreting NTPQ output

Alessandro Pilati — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 03:37:19 GMT

LOCAL(1) Indicates your localhost
13 is the stratum of one of the servers to contact for synchronization, the lower the better, 1=primary...16=not synchronized ( the server must be at lower or equal stratum than client, to avoid loops in configuration )
u is the type of server, in your case is UNICAST
605 time passed since the last interrogation of this server ( in seconds )
1024 is the poll value, the interval between the interrogations
377 reachability of the last 8 interrogation ( 377 means that all the last 8 responses from the server have been correctly received )
4.79 Delay of propagation ( MUST BE < 16, otherwise your xntpd consider the server unaffordable, so 4,79 is OK )
-286549 Difference from the local time
19.39 Time of dispersion of the last 8 interrogation

Anyway,
here it is a SUPER document about NTP.
Take care of it

http://www.sun.com/blueprints/0901/NTPpt3.pdf

Hope all it helped you

Regards,
Alex

Re: Interpreting NTPQ output

Yogeeraj_1 — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 00:16:37 GMT

hi again,

seems like my server is not synchronising with my time server. am i right?

below some observations:

# ntpq -p
remote refid st t when poll reach delay offset disp
==============================================================================
*LOCAL(1) LOCAL(1) 10 l 21 64 377 0.00 0.000 10.01
ntptsvr.yd.mu LOCAL(1) 13 u 901 1024 367 5.52 -286544 13.66

# ntpq -p ntptsvr.yd.mu
remote refid st t when poll reach delay offset disp
==============================================================================
*LOCAL(1) LOCAL(1) 12 l 8h 64 377 0.00 0.000 0.94
#

attaching txt file for a better formatted output.

your comments would be most appreciated.

Kind regards
yogeeraj

Re: Interpreting NTPQ output

Alessandro Pilati — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 03:17:45 GMT

OK,
verify if the server ntp is failing in authentication:

Run:
xntpdc
at the "xntpdc>" prompt run:
pstats

And post the output ( Bad authentication should be 0 )

Re: Interpreting NTPQ output

Yogeeraj_1 — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 04:28:22 GMT

hi,
below the output you requested:
# xntpdc
xntpdc> pstats ntptsvr.yd.mu
remote host: ntptsvr.yd.mu
local interface: x.x.x.x
time last received: 311s
time until next send: 713s
reachability change: 98152s
packets sent: 109
packets received: 108
bad authentication: 0
bogus origin: 0
duplicate: 0
bad dispersion: 8
bad reference time: 0
candidate order: 0
xntpdc>

regards
yogeeraj

Re: Interpreting NTPQ output

Alessandro Pilati — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 06:34:37 GMT

Authentication is ok.
But you host is using itself as the ntp source.

Check if you did this procedure to enable ntp client:

/sbin/init.d/xntp stop
cd /etc/rc.config.d
vi netdaemons

export NTPDATE_SERVER=node name
export XNTPD=1

then run:
ntpdate
/sbin/init.d/xntp start

Wait 10 mins, run ntpq -p again to check the status.

Re: Interpreting NTPQ output

Alessandro Pilati — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 06:53:31 GMT

Check also if your server is reachable:
ntpq -p ntpsrv.yd.mu
and
ntptrace

Re: Interpreting NTPQ output

Yogeeraj_1 — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 07:15:21 GMT

hi,
thank you for your reply.

below the output after running the commands you requested above!

============================================
# ntpdate ntptsvr.yd.mu
2 Sep 07:43:55 ntpdate[8066]: step time server 192.168.150.20 offset -28654.202762 sec
#

# ./xntpd start
2 Sep 07:45:09 ntpdate[8155]: step time server 192.168.150.20 offset -0.008408 sec
xntpd # date
Fri Sep 2 07:45:42 GMT 2005
# ntpq -p
remote refid st t when poll reach delay offset disp
==============================================================================
LOCAL(1) LOCAL(1) 10 l 8 64 3 0.00 0.000 7885.01
ntptsvr.yd.mu LOCAL(1) 13 u 39 64 1 5.97 -1.288 15875.0
# date
Fri Sep 2 07:50:28 GMT 2005
# date
Fri Sep 2 08:03:49 GMT 2005
# ntpq -p
remote refid st t when poll reach delay offset disp
==============================================================================
*LOCAL(1) LOCAL(1) 10 l 15 64 377 0.00 0.000 10.01
ntptsvr.yd.mu LOCAL(1) 13 u 1 1024 377 4.90 7.982 3.95

# ntpq -p ntptsvr.yd.mu
remote refid st t when poll reach delay offset disp
==============================================================================
*LOCAL(1) LOCAL(1) 12 l 58 64 377 0.00 0.000 0.92
# ntptrace
localhost: stratum 11, offset 0.000063, synch distance 0.01038
127.127.1.1: *Timeout*
# ntptrace ntptsvr.yd.mu
ntptsvr.yd.mu: stratum 13, offset 0.004179, synch distance 0.01114
127.127.1.1: *Timeout*
# date
Fri Sep 2 08:12:38 GMT 2005
#

===========================================
attached a less garbled output

My date has gone totally ashtray now instead of 16:12 it is showing me 08:12

what's wrong?

thanking you in advance for your reply.

kind regards
yogeeraj

Re: Interpreting NTPQ output

Alessandro Pilati — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 07:50:37 GMT

Yogeeraj, check what I did on my server:

# ntptrace -v -d idats1
DoTransmit(10.115.0.3)
DoTransmit to 10.115.0.3
ReceiveBuf(10.115.0.3, 10.115.0.3)
server 10.115.0.3, port 123
stratum 4, precision -11, leap 00
refid 127.127.1.0 delay 0.00027, dispersion 0.00000 offset 21426.566123
rootdelay 0.00000, rootdispersion 0.01120, synch dist 0.01120
reference time: c6c2c67c.b99a3000 Fri, Sep 2 2005 14:39:24.725
originate timestamp: c6c2c690.bf5a3000 Fri, Sep 2 2005 14:39:44.747
transmit timestamp: c6c272de.2e637000 Fri, Sep 2 2005 8:42:38.181

DoTransmit(127.127.1.0)
DoTransmit to 127.127.1.0
# ntpdate idats1
2 Sep 14:40:00 ntpdate[9117]: step time server 10.115.0.3 offset 21426.566051 sec

# ntptrace -v -d idats1
DoTransmit(10.115.0.3)
DoTransmit to 10.115.0.3
ReceiveBuf(10.115.0.3, 10.115.0.3)
server 10.115.0.3, port 123
stratum 4, precision -11, leap 00
refid 127.127.1.0 delay 0.00038, dispersion 0.00000 offset -0.010414
rootdelay 0.00000, rootdispersion 0.01141, synch dist 0.01141
reference time: c6c2c67c.b99a3000 Fri, Sep 2 2005 14:39:24.725
originate timestamp: c6c2c6a3.c15a3000 Fri, Sep 2 2005 14:40:03.755
transmit timestamp: c6c2c6a3.c3f7d000 Fri, Sep 2 2005 14:40:03.765

DoTransmit(127.127.1.0)
DoTransmit to 127.127.1.0

With ntptrace I saw that I had a time setted to 8:42:38, but after ntpdate, the time has sinchronized to "idats1" time ( my timeserver ) to 14.40.03

Try "ntptrace -d -v ntptsvr.yd.mu"
so we can see if the time server has the correct hour.

Then try to launch again ntpdate ntptsvr.yd.mu

Re: Interpreting NTPQ output

Yogeeraj_1 — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 08:20:36 GMT

Hi Alessandro,

Thank you for your reply.

here is what i am getting now!
# date
Fri Sep 2 09:16:14 GMT 2005

# ntptrace -d -v ntptsvr.yd.mu
DoTransmit(ntptsvr.yd.mu)
DoTransmit to ntptsvr.yd.mu
ReceiveBuf(ntptsvr.yd.mu, ntptsvr.yd.mu)
server ntptsvr.yd.mu, port 123
stratum 13, precision -20, leap 00
refid 127.127.1.1 delay 0.00493, dispersion 0.00000 offset 0.046830
rootdelay 0.00000, rootdispersion 0.01128, synch dist 0.01128
reference time: c6c2cf3b.e003ff69 Fri, Sep 2 2005 9:16:43.875
originate timestamp: c6c2cf54.94e453d2 Fri, Sep 2 2005 9:17:08.581
transmit timestamp: c6c2cf54.88425000 Fri, Sep 2 2005 9:17:08.532

DoTransmit(127.127.1.1)
DoTransmit to 127.127.1.1
ReceiveBuf(127.127.1.1, 127.0.0.1)
receive: wrong server
DoTransmit(127.127.1.1)
DoTransmit to 127.127.1.1
ReceiveBuf(127.127.1.1, 127.0.0.1)
receive: wrong server
DoTransmit(127.127.1.1)
DoTransmit to 127.127.1.1
ReceiveBuf(127.127.1.1, 127.0.0.1)
receive: wrong server
DoTransmit(127.127.1.1)
DoTransmit to 127.127.1.1
ReceiveBuf(127.127.1.1, 127.0.0.1)
receive: wrong server
DoTransmit(127.127.1.1)
DoTransmit to 127.127.1.1
ReceiveBuf(127.127.1.1, 127.0.0.1)
receive: wrong server
127.127.1.1: *Timeout*
#
# date
Fri Sep 2 09:17:46 GMT 2005
#

What is wrong now?

a time zone problem?
on my hp-ux server, it it
# echo $TZ
GMT+4

and on my windows time server, it is also set to GMT+4

any more insights?

kind regards
yogeeraj

PS. if i don't reply, it means that it is already 6pm and i have left office, will followup tomorrow morning. Have nice weekend.

Re: Interpreting NTPQ output

Florian Heigl (new acc) — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 08:36:11 GMT

let me first answer the second question, as it's the easier one :)

the timezone is not an issue, ntp does all transfers fixed to UTC.

first one:
DoTransmit(127.127.1.1)
DoTransmit to 127.127.1.1
ReceiveBuf(127.127.1.1, 127.0.0.1)
receive: wrong server
127.127.1.1: *Timeout*

now, You're server is talking to itself, but is (I think) not correctly specified in ntp.conf. guessing by the stratum of 13 this is the failback to the local system clock, but it appears to have a problem.

Your definition should be no more than:
# server 127.127.1.1
# fudge 127.127.1.1 stratum 13

can You please compare it?

Re: Interpreting NTPQ output

Alessandro Pilati — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 10:03:35 GMT

Yogeeraj,
127.127.1.1 is not an IP address, but a Magic Number that indicates ntp client to refer to himself.

You should post your ntp.conf file to let our ideas more clear about the situation.

Thank you,
Alex

Re: Interpreting NTPQ output

Yogeeraj_1 — Sat, 03 Sep 2005 00:03:01 GMT

Dear all,

thank you for your replies.

The last few lines of my /etc/ntp.conf (full file attached) are as follows:
=============================
broadcastclient no
server 127.127.1.1
fudge 127.127.1.1 stratum 10
driftfile /etc/ntp.drift
authenticate no
server ntptsvr.yd.mu version 3
=============================

which i have modified to:
=============================
broadcastclient no
#server 127.127.1.1
#fudge 127.127.1.1 stratum 10
driftfile /etc/ntp.drift
authenticate no
server ntptsvr.yd.mu version 3
=============================
and ran the following commands:

# ./xntpd stop
xntpd stopped
# ./xntpd start
3 Sep 00:33:09 ntpdate[26213]: step time server 192.168.150.20 offset 0.457739
sec
xntpd # ntpq -p
remote refid st t when poll reach delay offset disp
==============================================================================
corp.cmt.mu 0.0.0.0 16 - - 64 0 0.00 0.000 16000.0
#
# ntpdate ntptsvr.yd.mu
3 Sep 00:34:37 ntpdate[26221]: the NTP socket is in use, exiting

# date 09030836
Sat Sep 3 08:36:00 GMT 2005
#

===================
restarted server
===================
# date
Sat Sep 3 08:47:12 GMT 2005
# ntpq -p
ntpq: read: Can't assign requested address
# ntpq -p ntptsvr.yd.mu
remote refid st t when poll reach delay offset disp
==============================================================================
*LOCAL(1) LOCAL(1) 12 l 8h 64 377 0.00 0.000 0.95
# ntpdate ntptsvr.yd.mu
3 Sep 00:50:32 ntpdate[1517]: step time server ntptsvr.yd.mu offset -28661.098
925 sec
# ntpq -p ntptsvr.yd.mu
remote refid st t when poll reach delay offset disp
==============================================================================
*LOCAL(1) LOCAL(1) 12 l 45 64 377 0.00 0.000 0.95
# ntpq -p
ntpq: read: Can't assign requested address
# date
Sat Sep 3 00:51:16 GMT 2005
#

my time is again late by 8 hours again!

kind regards
yogeeraj

Re: Interpreting NTPQ output

Bob_Vance — Sat, 03 Sep 2005 06:38:23 GMT

>seems like my server is not synchronising with my time server. am i right?

You will notice from the first output:

*LOCAL(1) LOCAL(1) 10 l 28 64 377 0.00 0.000 10.01
ntptsvr.yd.mu LOCAL(1) 13 u 7

That "ntptsvr.yd.mu" is also using its LOCAL time, but at stratum 13.
Since you specified stratum 10 for this server and 10 is better than 13, that's why it is using its own LOCAL time.

It appears that "ntptsvr.yd.mu" is not a real NTP server -- at least it has no access to a real server or is having problems accessing one.

If "ntptsvr.yd.mu" is simply another internal box that has been designated as the master time, but is not really accessing an external, "real" NTP server, then I would set its LOCAL stratum to something better than 13, say 7. This is just as an indicator that it's kinda special.

Then, for other boxes using "ntptsvr.yd.mu", simply take out the LOCAL spec (which you finally did here) or be sure that that the fallback stratum is worse (greater) than 7.

What do you know about "ntptsvr.yd.mu" ?
Are you sure that its LOCAL time is correct?

hth
bv

Re: Interpreting NTPQ output

Yogeeraj_1 — Mon, 05 Sep 2005 01:36:14 GMT

Dear bv,

Your Question: What do you know about "ntptsvr.yd.mu" ?
My Answer:
I downloaded "NTP for Windows NT/2000/XP"
from:
http://www.meinberg.de/download/ntp/windows/ntp-4.2.0a@1.1354-o-win32-set
up.exe

(see my previous thread that i create during my initial installation/configuration: http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=947300 )

Your Question: Are you sure that its LOCAL time is correct?
My Answer:
Yes. I had manually changed the time after installation.

Dear experts, please advise on what i should do next.

thank you in advance

kind regards
yogeeraj

Re: Interpreting NTPQ output

Bob_Vance — Mon, 05 Sep 2005 08:46:08 GMT

Well, first I would make sure that the latest patch for NTP, PHNE_24512, is installed on HPUX.

Then, I would suspect the windows NTP server -- because I have always used Unix NTP servers ;>) However, I *have* had problems in the past with some v3 HPUX versions, but not lately.

Is there any reason that the NT box has to be the main time server?

I would try changing the HPUX box to be the main NTP server:
. change it to stratum 7
. take out its server statement to "ntptsvr.yd.mu"
. then, on "ntptsvr.yd.mu", add a 'server hp-box'

to see whether the NT box syncs up with the HP server.

Or, do you have another Unix/Linux server that you could play with to try to sync up with the HP box?

hth
bv