[ntp:questions] Should ntpd log failure to syslog?

Chris Dew cmsdew at googlemail.com
Wed Dec 10 16:56:32 UTC 2008


Thanks for your reply.

I'm querying whether ntpd will log an error to syslog if it can't
synchronise the time.

I had assumed it would - and therefore we would be able to see such a
problem through off-box syslog analysis.

If it doesn't log such a failure itself, I'll need to add a monitoring
script (which *will* log to syslog).

My enquiry was to whether I'd got something wrong, in either the
configuration of ntpd or in my assumptions about it's behaviour.

Thanks,

Chris.

On Dec 10, 4:39 pm, "Richard B. Gilbert" <rgilber... at comcast.net>
wrote:
> Chris Dew wrote:
> > I'm new to setting up ntpd.
>
> > When ntp works successfully, it logs that fact to syslog.
>
> > When it fails (because I've provided a deliberately bogus timeserver),
> > it sends nothing to syslog, even 10 minutes after boot.
>
> > What should its behaviour be, when it can't contact its timeserver(s)?
>
> <snip>
>
> There is not much it CAN do.  It tells you, if you are paying attention,
>   that it cannot reach a server to synchronize with.  Paying attention
> means making some use of the monitoring tools provided; e.g. ntpq and ntpdc.
>
> Note that ntpd is a "slow starter" it will typically take about thirty
> minutes from a cold start to get your clock well synchronized.  A warm
> start should be a little faster.
>
> Normally, reaching a server is not a problem.  If ntpd can't reach its
> configured servers, something is horribly wrong somewhere and your
> network people should be working like beavers to fix it!




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