ntp timeout message

[lawrenzo_1]

Hello all,

I have looked through some docs and cannot work out why this is happening:

spfl867a# ntpq -p
remote refid st t when poll reach delay offset disp
==============================================================================
enstym02a 0.0.0.0 16 - - 64 0 0.00 0.000 16000.0
enstym02b 0.0.0.0 16 - - 64 0 0.00 0.000 16000.0
enstym05a 0.0.0.0 16 - - 64 0 0.00 0.000 16000.0
enstym05b 0.0.0.0 16 - - 64 0 0.00 0.000 16000.0
l867a# ps -ef |grep ntp
root 471 1 0 01:52:57 ? 0:00 /usr/lib/inet/xntpd
root 530 434 0 01:53:39 pts/4 0:00 grep ntp
l867a# ntptrace
localhost: stratum 16, offset 0.000067, synch distance 1.00056
0.0.0.0: *Timeout*

I have started and stopped the daemons with no luck - does this require reconfig?

Thanks

[Bill Hassell · Accepted solution]

If this was working correctly, then the NTP servers are not responding. Since these look like local servers on your network, I would suspect that a network admin has disabled port 123 on your local router. Start your troubleshooting by running traceroute from your system to the NTP servers. This may not be conclusive since some network admins restrict ping and traceroute. See if other systems on your local subnet can reach the NTP servers. See if clients on the same subnet as the NTP servers can get NTP services.

[lawrenzo_1]

checked the config files - this server points to a site in the US and I am in the UK, appears to be some routing problems ie:

ntptrace -n

0.0.0.0: *Timeout*

where 0.0.0.0 I would expect this to list one of the time servers ip?

[Ermin Borovac]

If NTP servers were responding you would see IP addresses instead of 0.0.0.0.

Does '/usr/sbin/ntpq -p ' also return timeout message?

Do you have any restrict clauses in your ntp.conf?

Is this Solaris system? /usr/lib/inet/xntpd doesn't look HP-UX.

[lawrenzo_1]

yes it is solaris however we have HP systems on the same network and subnet with similar issues.

and yes ntp server times out

l867a# ntpq -p
enstym02a: timed out, nothing received
***Request timed out

I run traceroute

spfl867a# traceroute enstym02a
traceroute: Warning: Multiple interfaces found; using ip @ ge0
traceroute to enstym02a (ip), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
1 router1 (ip) 0.451 ms 0.290 ms 0.281 ms
2 rt2 (ip) 0.397 ms 1.207 ms 0.331 ms
3 rt3 (ip) 83.017 ms 150.459 ms 83.172 ms
4 rt4 (ip) 108.353 ms 82.886 ms 82.999 ms
5 rt5 (ip) 83.021 ms 82.878 ms 82.855 ms
6 rt6(ip) 82.991 ms 83.056 ms 82.902 ms
7 rt7 (ip) 83.476 ms 83.328 ms 83.357 ms
8 rt8 (ip) 94.374 ms 87.382 ms 85.290 ms
9 * * *
10 * * *
11 * rt8 (ip)
12 * * *
13 * rt8 (ip)

so there system appears to get so far then cannot get further than rt8 - I am thinking maybe a router problem somewhere?

[Bill Hassell]

Looks like router problems. But to verify that you cannot reach any NTP server, use ntpq -p to specific servers:

ntpq -p europe.pool.ntp.org
ntpq -p ntp2b.mcc.ac.uk
ntpq -p ntp2.sandvika.net
ntpq -p blade.avnf.com

You mentioned that you only have one NTP server? For productionmachines, it is a good idea to have a couple of internal systems that will be the NTP server for the rest of the company. Then point these servers to at least 3 to 5 sources. The reasons are for accuracy and reliability. See www.ntp.org for details.

[lawrenzo_1]

sorry Bill the output of ntpq -p displays four ntp servers - I will raise this on monday with our network teams.

[lawrenzo_1]

will investigate monday

till then thanks both!

Lawzo