[ntp:questions] Re: Mother Of All Clocks

Marc Brett marc at fordson.demon.co.uk
Fri Mar 25 16:06:39 UTC 2005


On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 16:54:35 +0100, Heiko Gerstung
<heiko.gerstung_removeme_ at meinberg.de> wrote:

>Hi Guys,
>
>just something to check out for the weekend. We recently built an 
>individual system which could be described as the first NTP blade server 
>available (the name refers to an internal joke, so you should not take 
>it too seriously :-)). It can be equipped with up to 33 autonomous time 
>server modules each running NTP 4.20a under Linux (Nanokernel) and 
>taking its time from a hybrid GPS and DCF77 receiver system.
>
>If you find this "monster" interesting, you can find some informations 
>and fotos at http://www.meinberg.de/english/products/moac.htm ...

Sheesh!  What kind of client needs that sort of time security?  How much damage
would result if the time were wrong?  How was upper management convinced to
shell out the big bucks for this solution?  The typical response from most
techies and managers I've approached has been "why do we need that?" and "ok,
I'll humour you and install NTP, but our time will come from the Internet,
because it's free."

Meinberg would be doing the world a favour by publishing a detailed explanation
about WHY we might need need a behemoth like this.  It's not obvious to the
average beancounter.




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