[ntp:questions] Should ntpd log failure to syslog?

Richard B. Gilbert rgilbert88 at comcast.net
Wed Dec 10 19:28:40 UTC 2008


Uwe Klein wrote:
> Richard B. Gilbert wrote:
>> Uwe Klein wrote:
>>
>>> Richard B. Gilbert wrote:
>>>
>>>> Normally, reaching a server is not a problem.  If ntpd can't reach 
>>>> its configured servers, something is horribly wrong somewhere and 
>>>> your network people should be working like beavers to fix it!
>>>
>>>
>>> How should they know if ntp is mum about that failure?
>>>
>>> uwe
>>
>>
>> IF NTP IS THE ONLY THING FAILING, they won't know.  It's probably not 
>> their problem.  If you have four servers configured and you can't 
>> reach any of them, it's almost certainly a network problem and your 
>> networking people should know about it!
>>
>> If you MUST have NTP working at all times, you need to build a defense 
>> in depth.  That means one or more hardware reference clocks and/or 
>> four, five, or seven upstream servers.  I use a GPS timing receiver as 
>> the source for one of my servers, a WWV/WWVH radio clock for another, 
>> and several internet servers as backup/sanity check.
>>
>> And I'm just a hobbyist these days!  But I'm a hobbyist who knows what 
>> time it is! :-)
> 
> So, you are a hobby rocket scientist?  ;-)
> 
> back to the topic:
> with firewalls, overintelligent switches, NAT and nutty admins
> it is no longer a given that reaching a host via ping, traceroute
> or http means it works globally and you can now savor your next cigar.
> 
> I prefer information push of failures ( like to syslog )
> to information pull ( like in writing utilities that monitor
> uncooperative apps and which I have to setup as a cronjob ..... )
> 
> syslog already is a very flexible tool for monitoring and problem 
> escalation.
> 
> 
> uwe

The source to ntpd is available!  If you wish it to write something to 
syslog, please feel free to download the source, make the necessary 
modifications, and try it.  It should not be too difficult.  Making it 
work for EVERY platform is going to be a massive project.  What about 
platforms that don't *have* syslog?  I don't think Windows does and I'm 
fairly sure that VMS does not although their may be reasonable 
facsimiles in both cases.




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