Setting up NTP server on 11.31

[dictum9]

Need instructions how to set up an NTP server on 11.31.

P.S. This thread has been moevd from HP-UX > System Administration to HP-UX > Networking. - Hp forum Moderator

[Ken Grabowski]

I don't remember it being any different from other recent versions of HP-UX.

1) In /etc/rc.config.d/netdaemons set "export XNTPD=1" to start automatically on boot.

2) In /etc/ntp.conf define your NTP servers, and or peers. This is network specific so find out where your reachable time servers are.

3) Manually start by running "/sbin/init.d/xntpd start".

The "man 1M xntpd" command will give you the manual page for more detail.

[dictum9]

I need to setup an NTP server, I don't have an existing one.   I need instructions for how to make an existing computer an NTP server so that others could reference it. 

2) In /etc/ntp.conf define your NTP servers

[Bill Hassell]

Are you connected to the Internet? If so, ask your network (firewall) administrator to enable NTP and then point your systems to the firewall address. Use ntpq -p 12.34.56.78 to test the IP address for NTP services.

[dictum9]

We are behind the firewall.

[Ken Grabowski]

Once NTPD is running on the HP-UX host, other hosts can point to it as a server or a peer. That is as long as nothing has been done to restrict network access.

If this server will have no access to a network time server you can point at the internal clock. But normally your network team will have one or more network devices that provide NTP time service.  If they do, this is the best place to point at to keep all your servers in sync.  You can still have a hosts pointing at your NTP server as either a server or a peer.

To point to the internal clock you can add the following to /etc/ntp.conf:

brodcast nnn.nnn.nnn.255 version 3

fudge 127.127.1.1. stratum 10

server 127.127.1.1

driftfile /etc/ntp.drift

Broadcast is the same broadcast you use for your network settings.

Use "touch to create /etc/ntp.drift file.

The /etc/rc.config.d/netdaemons file should have:

export NTPDATE_SERVER="hostname"
export XNTPD=1
export XNTPD_ARGS=

[Bill Hassell]

>> We are behind the firewall.

No problem. That isn't unusual that port 123 is blocked by your network administrator's policies. However, virtually every firewall has the ability to be setup as the definitive NTP source for your entire company. And this is as it should be since every box with some computer inside needs NTP (routers, switches, WiFi routers/repeaters, tape changers, load balancers, mainframes, Active Directory servers, Linux and all Unix boxes, etc). Everything needs to have the exact same time of day. Not only does it keep th e logs in each box useful, more and more boxes are linked together in databases and when clients have differing time, or worse, different timezones, databases may fail or become corrupt when time records do not make any sense.

Rather than hack a few HP-UX boxes together, work with your network administrator to enable NTP on the firewall, and have network team help to configure every box in your datacenter. You'll save a lot of unnecessary troubleshooting in the future.