[ntp:questions] Implementing NTP in a legacy system

unruh unruh at invalid.ca
Wed Dec 12 17:37:33 UTC 2012


On 2012-12-12, andreas.ames at de.transport.bombardier.com <andreas.ames at de.transport.bombardier.com> wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> I'm rather new to NTP so please forgive me, if my question is trivial.
>
> I'm maintaining a legacy system with its own proprietary time 

Why be coy. Why not tell us what that legacy system is. And why you
would want to keep its own proprietary time sync protocol.

> synchronisation protocols.  Now I want to add a new subsystem which 
> requires a NTP daemon to be available.  I have added a gateway device 

Subsystem as in new hardware or as in a program? If the latter then one
thing to remember is that there is (usually) only one system clock on a
system, and having two systems try to control that one clock is a
recipie for total and complete disaster. If that is what you want to do,
you cannot. ntp is not a way for programs to figure out what the time
is, it is a way for the system to control the system clock.

> which will be used to run an NTP daemon to provide NTP based time 
> synchronisation to the newly added subsystem.
>
> My questions are:
>
> 1. I want to use my legacy time synchronisation protocol/mechanism as the 
> reference clock of the NTP daemon on the gateway device.  In my limited 
> understanding this means that the NTP daemon on the gateway would become a 
> stratum 1 server, right? Are there ways to "easily" add new reference 
> clocks in popular implementations like ntpd preferably without setting the 
> system time on the gateway?

Again, you have given no information. 
But that gateway device would have to be running ntpd or some other
program which recognizes ntp protocol queries to act as any kind of
server for ntp. If it does not, it is not anykind of server. 

>
> 2. Is it possible to prevent ntpd on the gateway from setting the system 
> time on the gateway?

If you would be more forthcoming, people could probably give better
advice. 




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