[ntp:questions] Re: Servers just doen't work (after following the troubleshooting page)

Danny Mayer mayer at gis.net
Thu Sep 29 13:23:50 UTC 2005


Per Hedeland wrote:
>>If ntpq -p is showing the two servers listed
>>(there should always be more than two, BTW) then it's receiving packets
> 
>>from those servers.
> 
> Hm? Yes, ntpq -p is showing two servers - from the original post:
> 
> [root at client1 /]# ntpq -p
>       remote           refid      st t when poll reach   delay   offset  jitter
> ==============================================================================
>   ntp2.<mydomain> 0.0.0.0         16 u    -   64    0    0.000    0.000 4000.00
>   ntp1.<mydomain> 0.0.0.0         16 u    -   64    0    0.000    0.000 4000.00
> 
> How do you infer from this that it's receiving packets, to me it says
> exactly the opposite? Are you saying that the current code will not show
> servers that are configured but from which no packets have been
> received? That would not be an improvement I think. At least as of
> 4.2.0, the refid in this case is shown as .INIT., but otherwise the
> output is identical to the above (and present).
> 

I've spent a lot of time debugging this stuff. The fact is that if a 
server is not reachable in the first place it won't show up in the 
scoreboard and there is no association created. A refid of 0.0.0.0 
doesn't mean a lot since we don't know what kind of ntp is responding to 
the requests. Other implementations may not even set the refid. We don't 
know since that not a piece of information we've been given.

> 
>>The fact that they are both showing stratum 16 on
>>the scoreboard indicates that neither are able to serve a valid time
>>because they themselves are not synchronized.
> 
> 
> Or, at least "traditionally", that no packets have been received from
> them.
> 
No, because there's been no association mobilised.

Danny



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