[ntp:questions] Local clock - sync issue

Kevin Oberman oberman at es.net
Wed Nov 3 19:00:04 UTC 2010


> From: Stephen Vaughan <Stephen.Vaughan at blackboard.com>
> Date: Tue, 2 Nov 2010 23:13:47 -0700
> Sender: questions-bounces+oberman=es.net at lists.ntp.org
> 
> Hi,
> 
> We're having an issue with an NTPD whereby it's defaulting (or
> whatever the correct terminology is) to the LOCAL clock, this is
> occurring when one of our servers loses connectivity. We have 4
> server's setup and the local clock is also configured:
> 
> server  127.127.1.0     # local clock
> fudge   127.127.1.0 stratum 10
> 
> ntpq -p output:
> 
>      remote           refid      st t when poll reach   delay   offset  jitter
> ==============================================================================
>  hostname .INIT.          16 u    - 1024    0    0.000    0.000   0.000
>  hostname .INIT.          16 u    - 1024    0    0.000    0.000   0.000
>  hostname .INIT.          16 u    - 1024    0    0.000    0.000   0.000
>  hostname.INIT.          16 u    - 1024    0    0.000    0.000   0.000
> *LOCAL(0)        .LOCL.          10 l    9   64  377    0.000    0.000   0.001
> 
> The issue with this is that once it defaults to the LOCAL, it doesn't
> sync with an external source again, until we manually restart
> ntpd. I'm sure this is something simple, but I'm hoping someone can
> assist.

Patient: Doctor, it hurts when I do this!
Doctor: Then don't do that. Next patient!

Why do you have LOCAL in your ntp.conf? It is almost always a REALLY bad
idea because it leaves the clock free-running. 

It is oft discussed on this list why so many software distributions
include LOCAL in the default ntp.conf. They really, really should stop
doing it and so should you.

The real question is why you are not getting to any of the named servers
in ntp.conf.
-- 
R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer
Energy Sciences Network (ESnet)
Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)
E-mail: oberman at es.net			Phone: +1 510 486-8634
Key fingerprint:059B 2DDF 031C 9BA3 14A4  EADA 927D EBB3 987B 3751



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