On 4/26/13, Alan McKinnon <alan.mckin...@gmail.com> wrote: > On 26/04/2013 19:11, Nick Khamis wrote: >>>> >> Thank you so much for your response, and I totally understand the >>>> >> effort vs. benefit challenge. However, is it really that much >>>> >> trouble/unstable to setup our own ntp >>>> >> server that syncs with our local isp, and have our internal network >>>> >> sync >>>> >> on it? >>> > >>> > >>> > No, it's not THAT much effort. You can get by with installing ntpd on >>> > a >>> > single machine, pointing it at the upstream time server and pointing >>> > all >>> > your clients to it. It's clearly recorded in the config file, you >>> > can't >>> > go wrong. >>> > >>> > It's understanding how this weird thing called time works that is the >>> > issue. Take for example leap seconds..... urggggggggggg... >>> > >>> > The basic question I suppose is why do you want to do it this way? >>> > What >>> > do you feel you will gain by doing it yourself? >>> > >>> > >>> > -- >>> > Alan McKinnon >>> > alan.mckin...@gmail.com >>> > >>> > >>> > >> Hello Alan, >> >> Thank you so much for your time. Our voip cluster time always vary for >> some reason.... >> And with long distance, that could mean upwards to a dollar a call. > > > Ah, OK. That changes things quite a bit. I have a little bit of > experience with that - I work for a large ISP, we have a large VOIP > department and we run a stratum 2 time server that serves most of the > country. > > First things first: you can't just stick any old upstream ntp server in > your config and walk away. You are then reliant on the quality of that > upstream, and far too often other time servers operate on a "good > enough" policy - if it's accurate to about a second, it's good enough > (and for desktop users i.e. most ISP clients, it is good enough). > > I don't know how big your operation is, if you have budget I suggest you > invest in a proper master time source that is GPS-driven. We have a > Symmetricom (http://www.symmetricom.com) but it's a mature market with > several vendors. Shop around, prices are less than you'd expect (about > the same as a decent mid-range server and much less than Cisco's > routers...) > > Weather can get in the way, so back up the device with a decent second > upstream. I have a good one available run by the Science and Technology > Research part of the Dept of Trade and Industry and the third option is > all the other big ISPs around. > > Depending on your accuracy needs you could get away without the GPS unit > and just use a good upstream, but I'd fight for the budget for it - tell > management it puts control of billing back in your hands, they always > fall for that one :-) > > So the summary would be that I reckon ntpd will do what you want as long > as you chose good reliable time sources. With that in hand, the config > is easy as rather well documented. Shout here ont he list if you need a > hand with this when you come to deployment time > > > > > -- > Alan McKinnon > alan.mckin...@gmail.com > > >
Any suggestions for a "reliable", use that word cautiously ntp server. Requests are coming from canada. Was there not a project that dealt with setting up a network across the globe just for serving up NTP services? Did that marvelous idea die out? N.
