[ntp:questions] 4.2.4p8 -> 4.2.6p5 less frequent driftfile updates?

Harlan Stenn stenn at ntp.org
Thu Dec 19 22:47:53 UTC 2013


Terje Mathisen writes:
> Jochen Bern wrote:
> > Hello everyone,
> >
> > about 40h ago, I updated half a platform from CentOS 6.4 to 6.5, which
> > includes updating ntpd from ntp-4.2.4p8-3.el6.centos.x86_64 to
> > ntp-4.2.6p5-1.el6.centos.x86_64. One of the updated machines holds the
> > platform's Internet-bound NTP connections, and has some extra monitoring
> > for that - which now alerts us to the fact that by now, the driftfile
> > gets updated only every 6+ hours, rather than every hour (modulo sync
> > problems) as before.
> >
> > A quick scan seems to confirm that the update frequency is tied to the
> > ntpd version running on the machines:
> 
> This is intentional, in order to lace less load on the hard drive/flash 
> drive of embedded/small servers. :-)
> 
> The update is written only if the delta in time or frequency is large 
> enough afair.

Yes, this change went in on 10 June 2007, as part of DLM's leapfile
improvements, and were in 4.2.5p47.

Also see the "nonvolatile" directive in the ntp.conf file (described in
the miscopt.html page).

H


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