[ntp:questions] Re: Server time wandering even with ntpd

mike michael.no.spam.cook at wanadoo.fr
Thu Apr 27 18:59:23 UTC 2006


I believe these servers have a history of bad timekeeping, even with ntp
running. Loads of hits on google for the 26xx series.

Could be fixed by a bios patch... Call Dell


Michael Weber wrote:
> Greetings!
> 
> I'm brand new to this list so if this isn't the correct place for this question, please flame gently.
> 
> I am running an Oracle database on two Dell 2650 servers.  I run a script that resets the clock every night because after 24 hours the clock can be as much as 45 seconds off.  I have 20 other servers, running lots of OS's with no problem.  It's just these two servers which are the only two of this model I have in house.
> 
> I am running ntpd during the day, but it doesn't seem to be able to correct for the time issue.  I run it with this command line:
>          ntpd -U ntp -p /var/run/ntpd.pid -g
> 
> I realize that it is probably a hardware thing, but we got what we paid for with the Dell servers.
> 
> Here are the config's on that server:
> 
> # cd /etc/ntp
> # ls -l
> total 8
> -rw-r--r--    1 ntp      ntp             9 Apr 26 06:01 drift
> -rw-------    1 ntp      ntp           266 Feb  3  2004 keys
> lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           11 Apr 24 09:39 ntp.conf -> ../ntp.conf
> -rw-r--r--    1 ntp      ntp             0 Feb  3  2004 step-tickers
> 
> 
> # cat drift
> -134.277
> 
> 
> # cat ntp.conf
> 
> server phone2.alliednational.com
> 
> driftfile /etc/ntp/drift
> 
> authenticate no
> 
> I am running a script every hour that shuts down ntpd, runs ntpdate against the in-house time server (phone2) and restarts ntpd again.  I grab the output of that script in a log file which I copied below:
> 
> Shutting down ntpd: [  OK  ]
> 26 Apr 05:01:00 ntpdate[26000]: adjust time server 10.1.128.2 offset 0.043594 sec
> Starting ntpd: [  OK  ]
> Shutting down ntpd: [  OK  ]
> 26 Apr 06:01:04 ntpdate[26207]: step time server 10.1.128.2 offset 3.162581 sec
> Starting ntpd: [  OK  ]
> Shutting down ntpd: [  OK  ]
> 26 Apr 07:01:01 ntpdate[26383]: step time server 10.1.128.2 offset 0.567207 sec
> Starting ntpd: [  OK  ]
> 
> 
> As you can see, the time sync is wandering all over the place.  Because this database is used for our employees timeclock, and it was getting as much as a minute off by the end of the day, I had to update the clock every hour or people would start to complain.  I was running the script every day, but it wasn't enough.
> 
> Any ideas how to keep ntpd more in control?  I would really like to see the clock stick with the time server like it does on all my other servers.  I run ntpdate every night on every box, and I usually get a few millisecond adjustment, except on these two servers.
> 
> Thanx!
> 
> -Michael
> 
> 
> 
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