I was interested in having our VM system keep time more accurately without
the use of a sysplex timer, so I wrote a series of programs to set VM's time
at IPL using SNTP.

I'm a little disappointed with the results, since I can only get to about 1
second accuracy, I was hoping for sub-second (currently our time server is
+1.0545 from our VM time). At least I have been able to cut the operator out
of the time setting loop, and avoid some of the horrors they created.

During testing on second-level, I found that VM would accept a dynamic time
change and keep running, even with a ridiculous change (like to the 1940s).
However I should note that dynamically setting the time is completely
unsupported by IBM, and I was warned of potential dire consequences of doing
so in production. This is why I set the time at IPL, then do an immediate
SHUTDOWN REIPL before running with the new time and just monitoring the time
after that. Since we IPL once a month, this works for us.

If you are interested in the programs, drop me a note offline, and I can
send the bunch to you. The programs assume that you are running VM on GMT
(UCT, ZULU).

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Steven A. Adams [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: Friday, May 30, 2003 5:40 PM
> To:   [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject:      Time Sync
>
> This might be a little off topic so feel free to let me know if it is.
>
> Our z/800 is about 90 seconds off of time with the rest of the network
> and this is starting to cause some havoc with an application that we are
> currently developing. I have been told that getting the mainframe to
> sync up is probably an expensive proposition. I am being told that there
> is not a way to use ntpd under one of my Linux guests to set the clock
> and propagate these settings through VM to the CTC. So, if you don't
> mind me asking, what solutions are commonly used for time sync?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Steve
> --

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