> Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2008 23:37:44 PDT
> From: Ryan Chang <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: [sysadmin-discuss] Clock skew caused by ntpdate
> 
> I have 2 Sun T5220 machines in the lab, which synchronize time with a
> Sun Netra240 machine every 15 minutes. However, large clock skews are
> occasionally found on these two machines. Then I put a script on
> crontab which runs every 5 minutes to monitor the time difference with
> the time server. The content of this script is as follows:
>
> crontab -d TimeServer |tail -1 >> /var/tmp/timediff.txt
>
> When the clock skew is found, I can see from timediff.txt that one of
> the machine has executed the script, while the other missed one time:

I think you mean ntpdate...?

Do you have xntpd running?  After running ntpdate and setting the time,
start xntpd.  I have several thousand machines sync'd this way.  And
they run for months staying in step.

The only time that I've seen the time get off like that is when there
is something wrong with the clock chip.  Don't recall there being a
patch for this.  running xntpd, however, sync's the clock...  (Hides
the underlying chip error...)

Regards,
Gregory Hicks

> T5220#1:
> 23 Oct 11:00:00 ntpdate[8338]: ntpdate 3-5.93e+sun 03/06/05 23:16:45 
(1.4)
> 23 Oct 11:05:00 ntpdate[9361]: adjust time server 10.170.7.84 offset 
-0.001842 sec
> 23 Oct 11:10:00 ntpdate[10494]: adjust time server 10.170.7.84 offset 
-0.068542 sec
> 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------
> T5220#2:
> 23 Oct 10:55:00 ntpdate[4872]: adjust time server 10.170.7.84 offset 
-0.078087 sec
> 23 Oct 11:00:00 ntpdate[5878]: ntpdate 3-5.93e+sun 03/06/05 23:16:45 
(1.4)
> 23 Oct 11:10:00 ntpdate[1816]: adjust time server 10.170.7.84 offset 
-0.045485 sec
> 23 Oct 11:15:00 ntpdate[3023]: ntpdate 3-5.93e+sun 03/06/05 23:16:45 
(1.4)
> 
> You can see that on T5220#2, the script was not executed at 11:05:00, 
I suspect that the clock on T5220#2 was set to a time after 11:05:00 by 
ntpdate so it missed the one at 11:05:00, and the next time it sync time 
with the server, the clock was corrected, if this kind of problem really 
happens, it lead to troubles on database replication. Can anyone explain 
this issue and hopefully tell me how to fix it?
> Thanks!
> --
> This message posted from opensolaris.org
> _______________________________________________
> sysadmin-discuss mailing list
> [email protected]
> http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/sysadmin-discuss

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Gregory Hicks                           | Principal Systems Engineer
Cadence Design Systems                  | Direct:   408.576.3609
555 River Oaks Pkwy M/S 9B1
San Jose, CA 95134

People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men
stand ready to do violence on their behalf -- George Orwell

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.  -- Thomas Jefferson

"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they
be properly armed." --Alexander Hamilton

_______________________________________________
sysadmin-discuss mailing list
[email protected]
http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/sysadmin-discuss

Reply via email to