[ntp:questions] Proposed NTP solution for a network
Richard B. Gilbert
rgilbert88 at comcast.net
Wed Mar 4 22:00:25 UTC 2009
Augustine wrote:
> On Mar 3, 4:01 pm, "Richard B. Gilbert" <rgilber... at comcast.net>
> wrote:
>> NTP does this ONLY when the time is off by 128 milliseconds or more. If
>> NTP is that far off, other than at startup, something is badly wrong
>> somewhere!
>
> The problem is that I've seen this in the silly reaction of different
> NTP versions and servers to the recent leap second, causing my systems
> to be stepped by 1s back and forth (see bug #1110).
OK, the leap second has proven to be a serious problem for the NTP
network. The recent leap second created some problems. The previous
leap second (2004?) was also a problem; it took something like 24 hours
for the time to settle around the world.
I suspect that part of the problem is that the leap second is applied at
the LOCAL midnight. If everyone inserted the leap second at 00:00:00
UTC, NTP would be perfectly happy with it but everyone else would be
unhappy.
There may be a good solution to this. My best solution is to have a
"Leap Minute" every 240 years or so. This would, however, create a much
larger problem that occurred much less frequently. Our
great-great-great-great grandchildren could curse us and desecrate our
graves if they could find them.
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