Andrew Clark wrote:
I'm having problems getting NTP to work on my network. My gateway syncs
fine, but whenever I try to sync off the gate way, I get:
no server suitable for synchronization found
For instance:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 0 /usr/doc/ntp # ntpdate -q 192.168.1.1
server 192.168.1.1, stratum 2, offset -0.882461, delay 0.02628
16 Jan 10:53:16 ntpdate[1422]: no server suitable for synchronization found
Any ideas?
Please CC responses, I'm not subscribe at this account ATM.
Cheers,
Andrew Clark
90East (Asia Pacific) Pty Ltd
Canberra, Australia
Here are some "gotchas" that I discovered while getting NTP working
here. Maybe one of these will help.
1. Check your config files for the proper IPs. This should have been
configured correctly upon install, but it doesn't hurt to check. I
would suggest using IP numbers rather than server names in case your DNS
is a bit off. There has been several "updates" to the NTP program
lately, that change the location of the config files, so check your DOCS
to see where they are located. Generally they are either somewhere in
/etc or in the /etc/init.d/ntp initscript... depending on the version
you have installed.
2. NTPDATE and NTP are two different programs and cannot be run at the
same time. NTPDATE is generally run once at startup to get the system
clock in synch and then NTP will be started to provide continous
updates/synch. Unless you are planning on running your own "server" for
your LAN, the NTP program may be a bit of overkill. You can get the
same effect by running NTPDATE and updating it periodically with a cron
job. Your desires/needs will dictate what you need here.
3. The NTP program requires port 123 to be open. If you have a
firewall, then check your ruleset to make sure this port is open. The
NTPDATE program doesn't seem to care about this. This is one that got
me for quite a while.
4. Make sure the external time server you are trying to synch with is
available. Many are "closed" and require the sysop's permission to use
it. It is generally good PR to notify them that you are going to use
their time server anyway. I have found the following list of "public"
time servers quite useful:
http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~mills/ntp/servers.htm . I chose a Stratum-3
"public" server with no restrictions from a couple of local Universities
and have never had any problems.
5. This one falls in the category of "So obvious it shouldn't be
mentioned", but PING the external server and make sure it is UP! I
messed around for about 2 weeks with a server off the list once before I
did this :(. My head still has marks from beating it against the wall <g>.
6. For some reason, NTP would not synch with an EXTERNAL server on my
IPMasq / Firewall machine. When I moved it to another machine on the
LAN, it started working fine. Strangely, I can use NTP on the IPMasq
machine to synch to the LAN NTP server! Dunno why.... black magic I
suspect ;)
Cheers,
-Don Spoon-
