2 strat 1's using LCL?

[Rick Tweedy]

Hi

Well I did not have much luck with my last questions on the subject so I have moved on and have something a lil more specific.

I have attempted to follow the guidelines in setting up XNTP even though the environment is small but am left with one perplexing question.

We have no external source of time so I am limited to using the local clock. In my design diagram I have attempted to set it up as per HP recommendations alowing for plenty of redundancy. At the top are two servers that each use their own Local clock as a time source and I have set them as peers. This gives me redundancy across multiple subnets should either die. My confusion is that if they are both using the local clock will they not each be regularly providing different times to thier respective clients? Since many of the clients are peers this gets even more confusing. Kind of a tough one to explain without a diagram but hopefully you know what I mean? Its seems as though I should only have one source of time at top but should that server go down then NTP would be lost?

[James R. Ferguson]

Rick:

I don't think having two local clocks as time sources at the same stratum level will be a problem. From the "Installing and Administering Internet Services" manual:

NTP assumes theat servers that are not stratum-1 servers have several possible sources to which they can synchronize their time. NTP chooses a server based on factors such as which server is at the lowest-numbered stratum, and which is the closet in terms of network delay. If the chosen synchronization source becomes unavailable (due to failure of the server or in the network path), NTP automatically selects a different source from the available servers.

...JRF...

[Rick Tweedy]

I agree but the problem is that how do I ensure the two local clock are the same? If I set the two servers as peer that would only help if the LCL died which I dont think happens. As the two different LCL's deviate in time these two servers will be broadcasting different times on potentially the same subnet?