[ntp:questions] Re: Need ntpdate *tool* not *counselor*
mayer
mayer at gis.net
Fri Jun 3 02:55:07 UTC 2005
----- Original Message Follows -----
> What part of "2 hours by helicopter from Kuala Lumpur" did you not
> recognize as indicating exactly that? We Be Isolated!
>
Oh I understood every syllable.
> Those 2 hours are spent over water btw.
>
At least that's not over high mountain peaks...
> Kazakhstan was not a joke... I've gotten Startup & Service calls from
> that part of the world.
>
> Never in the nice clean cities (*cough*), we're at the
> well-farm/storage-farm/refinery plant way out that-a-way from
> anything we'd call a nice clean city.
>
> We're also onboard drilling ships way-out-wherever. We're also on
> floating (anchored) well-head->holding docks for passing tankers in
> probably a thousand feet of water. Getting more remote requires a
> wet suit, or a hard vacuum suit, or a high tolerance for breathing
> difficulties.
>
> So, yes, we're an isolated not-work(sic) w.r.t. synching time with
> anything else on this planet. Evolution being what it is, a desire
> for satellite-based time feed will eventually trickle down this
> industry to the point that there will be some reliable time master
> such that logs can be compared between two distant ships/plants. For
> now, getting the several embedded alarm processors and their master
> agreeing what the time is not only suffices, it is the best I can
> hope for.
>
None of this surprises me except that things like oil rigs will have
GPS anyway. Making use of it should be a piece of cake. Obviously
you don't have that option.
> Some folk have suggested having the Stratum16 Master lie helpfully by
> claiming Stratum10 status so that we'll all be equally wrong together,
> and our records will then agree. Good suggestion, prima facie; now
> I'm trying to figure out how to make a WinXp{home|pro} system serve
> time a-la-RFC for *any* version of (Linux) ntp.
>
Stratum 16 means don't trust this clock for anything (assuming it's
reachable at all).
> Best results so far in this direction is by disabling Windows Time
> Service and installing & auto-starting the freeware "Absolute Time
> Server".
>
I have no clue what "Absolute TIme Server" is, but that doesn't matter.
> How to configure the WinXp box to assert that it is a Stratum10
> device is still in the fog.
>
> rdate may prove fruitful also, if time zone issues can be resolved.
>
It's unlikely to be available on Windows. It's a Unix tool.
> P.S. These system have no operator, ever. The linux kernel has no
> console. The startup & Service folk can putty in via etherlan, and
> edit a flat text configuration file to add or remove '#' comment
> characters...
>
Well we hope that they can do more than just add or remove '#' comment
characters or you may well need that passport...
> ...if I ask for more than that they start sharpening knives and asking
> me if my passport is up to date. They'll make sure I get the
> necessary shots...
>
Picky guys...
I suggest you look at Maarten's advice to implement ntp using an
isolated local clock.
Danny
> Brian Brunner
> brian.t.brunner at gai-tronics.com
> (610)796-5838
>
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