[ntp:questions] ntp pool servers disappear

Jim Pennino jimp at gonzo.specsol.net
Thu Jun 24 15:22:13 UTC 2021


On Thu, Jun 24, 2021 at 10:04:32AM -0400, Danny Mayer wrote:
> On 6/23/21 10:26 AM, Jim Pennino wrote:
> > It seems that any server in ntp.conf that is specified as a name, as
> > the pool servers are, will after a sufficiently long DNS outage just
> > disappear and not come back after the outage without restarting ntp.
> > 
> > It would seem to me that ntp should only need to do a DNS lookup on
> > startup and from then on continue to use the address found.
> > 
> > But that is not how ntp works.
> 
> No, you shouldn't assume that once you have an IP address you can decide to
> use it forever. The owner of any server has the right to change the DNS
> entry used to point to a different server. We have had no end of problems
> with clients bombarding an IP address with packets long after it has stopped
> serving time.

All well and good but essentially irrelevant to what I posted.

> If you have a DNS issue then you should address that.

How do I address network failures by my ISP?

Should I stomp my feet or what?

> ntpd should pick up
> new addresses if one is available. If it doesn't do that please file a bug
> report.

Maybe it should, and I think it should, but it doesn't.

Where do I file this bug report?

-- 
Jim Pennino


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