[ntp:questions] NTP not syncing

unruh unruh at invalid.ca
Sat Nov 2 18:03:39 UTC 2013


On 2013-11-02, antonio.marcheselli at gmail.com <antonio.marcheselli at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I have a Linux machine which comes with fixed configuration. The manufacturer allows only ONE NTP server to be setup and I learnt that this is not ideal. In fact, the NTP service usually does not work and I have to reboot the machine every now and then, so the NTPDATE command built in the boot script can re-sync the clock.

Stupid setup unless that is a pool server and even then a few more than
one would be useful.

>
> I have tinkered with the configuration file manually and ended up with a working server. But when I stored the same configuration on the read only partition and rebooted, looks like it does not work anymore and after 2 days the offset keeps increasing.

How did you "store" on a read only partition. read only means that
partition cannot be written to and thus cannot "store" anything.

>
> I put the same configuration on three different servers on the same network, looks like sometimes it works, sometime it doesn't.
>
> Here is my configuration from ntp.con
>
>===
>     server 127.127.1.0

Completely lunatic. You do NOT use the local refclock ever. (And if you
know that that statement may have some exceptions, you may know enough
to use it, but even then probably not). 

>     fudge 127.127.1.0 stratum 10
>     server 158.43.128.66
>     server 81.168.77.149
>     server 130.88.200.4

What servers are those? You should NOT be using fixed addresses unless
you personally control them. 

>     restrict 127.0.0.1
>     restrict 130.1.1.1 mask 255.255.255.0 nomodify

And those lines are there why?

>     tos orphan 4
>     driftfile /status/etc/ntp/ntp.drift
>     logfile /var/log/ntp.log
>     multicastclient
>     broadcastdelay 0.008
>     enable monitor
>===
>
> Some of the parameters were on the factory configurations, so I left them. Like the broadcastdelay.
> 130.1.1.1 is a secure device which pools the time from the server.

??? that means what?


>
> Below some data from ntpq
>
>===
> ntpq> o
>      remote           local      st t when poll reach   delay   offset    disp
>==============================================================================
>  LOCAL(0)        127.0.0.1       10 l   47   64  377    0.000    0.000   0.924
> +158.43.128.66   192.168.241.5    2 u   41   64  377   61.669  -7159.7   4.450
> +81.168.77.149   192.168.241.5    3 u   13   64  377   90.475  -7167.2   2.633
> *130.88.200.4    192.168.241.5    2 u   60   64  377   66.076  -7145.6   4.446

OK, i is locking on to 130.88.200.4 but the offset is far too high. 

...
> An extract from the logs:
>  
>  2 Nov 15:02:02 ntpd[5306]: frequency error -527 PPM exceeds tolerance 500 PPM

OK. Your system is badly broken. It is impossible for ntp to discipline
it. You have to figure out why your hardware is broken before you try to
use ntpd.


>
> This server synced perfectly for the last 2 weeks with the same exact configuration. 

Well, it is broken now. Is it a virtual server? 

>
> Could someone please help? I can add a forth server if needed, I also understand that it would be recommended to use the iburst parameter.

Forth is not a language in much use anymore (not that it eer was:-)

Nothing you can do can save you except fixing your hardware. 



>
> Thanks for your help!
>
> Antonio



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