Interpreting NTPQ output

Yogeeraj_1 · ‎08-31-2005

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

No person was ever honoured for what he received. Honour has been the reward for what he gave (clavin coolidge)

Steve Steel · ‎08-31-2005

Hi

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

table 4.7

Steve Steel

If you want truly to understand something, try to change it. (Kurt Lewin)

Alessandro Pilati · ‎08-31-2005

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