[ntp:questions] Poll timing

Paul.Croome at softwareag.com Paul.Croome at softwareag.com
Thu Aug 16 08:59:44 UTC 2007


Jussi,

Why should the exact instant when NTP polls be important? It doesn't
matter whether the polling interval is 64 seconds or 64.1 seconds or
whatever.

IIRC, there is some logic in NTP that deliberately staggers the
polling of servers when NTP starts up. If this were not done, NTP
would try to poll all its servers more-or-less simultaneously,
causing
bursty network traffic. See
http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~mills/ntp/html/ntpd.html#op: "In order to
protect the network from bunching, the initial poll interval for each
server is delayed an interval randomized over a few seconds."

Paul




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