[ntp:questions] NTP server not reducing polling interval on upstream hosts

[David Lord]

Phil W Lee wrote:
> Hi people.
> 
> I've got a server running FreeBSD 8.1 with the included ntpd 4.2.4p5
> Yes, I know it's not the latest version, but it's well firewalled and
> the security restrictions are in place to prevent it being used in
> DDOS attacks.
> 
> The problem I am having is that it is stuck on polling the upstream
> stratum 1 servers it uses as a sanity check every 64 seconds. (it's
> main source is a Garmin GPS 18x with PPS, based on the excellent
> guides by David Taylor and Ryan Doyle).
> I did have minpoll 6 maxpoll 10, which should allow it to reduce the
> polling interval to 1024s, and I've now tried removing the explicit
> settings to allow it to use the default, but it is still sticking on
> that 64s polling time.
> I've left it 24 hours on both the default and explicitly defined
> settings, with no positive result on either.
> I don't really want to set the minpoll too high, as it takes such a
> long time to synchronise after rebooting or restarting ntpd.
> I'd prefer to be a good netizen and not hammer the upstream servers as
> hard as that, but it isn't playing.
> It used to, before I installed the Garmin and turned it into a stratum
> 1 server.
> 
> Does anyone have any ideas?



Hi


I'm stuck at the minpoll rate set in the server line for each
particular source.

I've not considered it a bug.

Ntpd version 4.2.7p444 at 1.2483-o on NetBSD/6.1, distfile is
downloaded from ntp.org then built and run from /usr/local. The
ntp-dev version conflicts with stock NetBSD version and I have
edited /etc/rc.d/ntpd to point to /usr/local.


Version of ntpd you have, 4.2.4p5, is very old but it should be
easy for you to update either from FreeBSD ports or as I have
done from the ntp.org source tarball:
http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~ntp/ntp_spoool/ntp4/ntp-dev/ntp-dev-4.2.7p???.tar.gz



David

*****************************************************************
# $NetBSD: ntp.conf, 2014/04/10 xx:xx:xx dml Exp $

......

tos minsane 3
tos orphan 10
tos mindist 0.4

# /dev/pps2 -> /dev/tty00
server 127.127.20.2 mode 18 prefer
fudge 127.127.20.2 stratum 7 time2 0.407 flag1 0 refid GPSb

server 127.127.22.2 minpoll 4 maxpoll 4
fudge 127.127.22.2 flag2 0 flag3 1 refid PPSb

# local peers:
peer -4 me6000g.home.lordynet.org minpoll 6 maxpoll 6 iburst

# local servers:
server -4 ntp0.lordynet.org.uk minpoll 6 maxpoll 6 iburst
server -4 ntp1.lordynet.org minpoll 6 maxpoll 6 iburst
server -4 ntp3.lordynet.org minpoll 6 maxpoll 6 iburst

# remote servers:
server -4 xxxxxxxxxxxxxx minpoll 8 maxpoll 12 iburst

*****************************************************************

-bash root at me6000e $ ntpq -crv -p
associd=0 status=011d leap_none, sync_pps, 1 event, kern,
version="ntpd 4.2.7p444 at 1.2483-o
     Thu May 22 09:51:04 UTC 2014 (1)",
processor="i386", system="NetBSD/6.1_STABLE", leap=00, stratum=1,
precision=-17, rootdelay=0.000, rootdisp=400.165, refid=PPSb,
reftime=d7eba026.53913a21  Fri, Oct 17 2014 14:03:18.326,
clock=d7eba032.15e5535c  Fri, Oct 17 2014 14:03:30.085,
peer=12161, tc=4, mintc=3, offset=0.000965, frequency=-35.060,
sys_jitter=0.007629, clk_jitter=0.002, clk_wander=0.003, tai=35,
leapsec=201207010000, expire=201412280000

      remote         refid    st t poll reach delay  offset jitter
=================================================================
*GPS_NMEA(2)   .GPSb.         7 l   64  377  0.000 -13.728  3.308
oPPS(2)        .PPSb.         0 l   16  377  0.000   0.001  0.008
  me6000g.home. 192.168.59.61  2 s   64  376  0.861  -0.421  0.460
+mail0.lordyne 81.187.61.78   3 u   64  377  1.659  -0.418  0.442
+mail.lordynet 81.187.61.78   3 u   64  377  1.047  -0.266  0.526
+ns3.lordynet. 81.187.61.78   3 u   64  377  0.736  -0.577  0.497
+xxxxxxxxxxxxx 195.66.241.3   2 u  256  377 17.827   0.471  1.234

*****************************************************************