help on ntp

[malay boy]

Hi guy's,

This is the output from ntpq -p

remote=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
refid= xxxxx
st=2
t=u
when=233
poll=512
reach=377
delay=0.32
offset=0.02
disp=0.03

question :
1) How do i know how many minutes it's poll from ntp server ?.
2) is it possible that the "A server" time is ahead of the NTP server and the ntp will minus the time from "A server" to follow NTP server time ?.

Rgrds
mB

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

1) poll=512 Thats seconds.
2) ntp checks time sources from top to bottom in the configuration file.

SEP

[Wouter Jagers · Accepted solution]

Hi,

poll=512 --> This means the server will be polled every 512 secs.

when=233 --> This means the last contact with the server was 233 secs ago. If this number is less than the 'poll' value (which it is) that's good.

When the client's time is a little slow or ahead it will be corrected by the NTP server.

Only if the time is very far off you might see ntp complain.

Hope that helps,
Cheers,
Wout

[Jollyjet]

The duration of update can be found from, the 'when' and 'poll' columns of
'ntpq -p' o/p.

When the 'when' count reaches the 'poll' value, the time will be
synchronized and the 'when' count will be re-set back.

[Bill Hassell]

1) 512 seconds = 8 minutes and 30 seconds

2) The question is ambiguous - are you talking about a few seconds, a few minutes or a few hours? And are you using xntpd in the standard configuration, or are you running ntpdate to jump the time? Assuming you have setup xntpd correctly, the time will be slightly changed over a long period (hours if needed) to adjust the time to match the server.

[malay boy]

Hi,
If the server need to adjust the time ( to follow the NTP server ) , is the activity will be log in the syslog.log file ?. OR where is NTP log file ?.

Sorry, I have left HPUX for couple of years already so my knowledge is rusty .

Regards
mB

[Patrick Wallek]

Yes, NTP info is logged in /var/adm/syslog/syslog.log. You will see messages about "synchronization lost".

[Bill Hassell]

> If the server need to adjust the time ( to follow the NTP server ) , is the activity will be log in the syslog.log file ?. OR where is NTP log file ?.

The man page for xntpd is very helpful. xntpd will log details to syslog.log. You can configure xntpd to log to a different file with -l . Change the command line startup options in /etc/rc.config.d/netdaemons file.

> Sorry, I have left HPUX for couple of years already so my knowledge is rusty .

NTP is not really HP-UX, it is an industry standard service so it's the same on virtually every platform (OK, Windows does it very badly with sntp) but this will also help:

www.ntp.org