NTP Client Error -- ntpstat shows unsynchronised
 

Hi All,

I am no expert in NTP But I have configured NTP Client many times, But this time something is going wrong.

This is my /etc/ntp.conf
Drift File
My NTP Server 10.2.29.26
/var/log/messages on restarting NTP server, there is nothing else relating to NTP. I am not sure even if there should be anything relating to time sync etc.

Other commands
Why is ntpstat still unsynchrnoized ? :scratch:

Am I missing something ? Please Help .!!
If things does not work, I will have to put this in crontab.

Hi vikas027,

I'd have to guess a firewall issue, can you confirm 123/udp inbound to the client ?

thanks,

kbp

Here's a known good ntp.conf that uses three pool servers (are you sure that 10.2.29.26 is serving time? That jitter value is way, way out of line) and does a fall-back to the local host when the network goes away for any reason. You can give this a try and see if it works for you; include 10.2.29.26 as your preferred source of time above the three pool servers and see if that helps. The ntp.conf below is well-commented to explain what's what in each section.

Your /etc/ntp directory should be owner and group root, mode 0755 and /etc/ntp/drift should be root.root and mode 0644; the ntp.keys file should be root.root and mode 600.

Another thing is that if your system clock is too far off, NTP won't synchronize it -- try setting the clock with ntpdate and one of the pool servers (just in case 10.2.29.26 isn't serving you, then start the daemon.

Hope this helps some.

Thanks for your time,
here it is

I just have one ntp server with me at present. And outside network is not enabled.

Still, I am getting the same error. I am getting this unsynchronised but server time (NTP client) is fine at this moment.

Have you tried starting ntpd with logging so you can see what's what?

Something like
(or where and how your ntpd lives)

Again, that jitter time looks like your NTP server is not serving time to you; are you sure it's running, that it's configured to serve time and that you can get from "this" system to it (like, can you ping it?).

"Good" log entries will look something like (I use three pool servers, yours will be different)

Hi vikas027,

Running a netstat only shows that it is listening, not that the ntp server can communicate with the ntp client

cheers,

kbp

hi vikash

may be your server config is not correct.some day back i have also faced this issue.

Pl post your server config by viewing i will suggest some thing.

Either you can change with this conf.

server ur time server
server 127.127.1.0
fudge 127.127.1.0 stratum 10

before doing all this activity stop your ntpd service and after config client run ntpdate -u time server ip.for three times.


may be it works.....

bye

Sorry, for coming late.
Are you asking for this,

No, I had no knowledge about logging. Will keep a note of this in future.

I ran the above commands and found this in /tmp/ntp.log.
Please help. Is there some issue with the NTP server itself ?

And yes, I am able to ping it.
Also I have found that my /etc/ntp/drift is empty. I do not think it should be empty as it should store error in frequency of the system clock. Am i right ?

Back in the prehistory of the world with NTP I recall having to initialize /etc/ntp/drift with a real number; e.g.,
or use an editor or some other method of your choosing, just get 0.0 in there and restart ntpd and see if that helps any. Once you get it going, that value will be updated periodically by the daemon so you only do this one time.

Looking up at your initial post, you have your driftfile defined as /var/lib/ntp/drift? The log is telling you that it's looking in /etc/ntp/drift (and it's maybe looking for other file in /etc/ntp too?

You may want to just try changing your server section in /etc/ntp.conf to something like this
(the prefer keyword is deleted above). Defining the pool servers won't hurt and might help -- if you can sync to a pool server but not to your intranet server...

Comment out the authenticate line; it's not doing anything.

You're looking for keys, does the file /etc/ntp/keys exist and is there anything in it? I don't use keys and the provided example file (/etc/ntp/ntp.keys) contains
Note that those values are discussed in the example ntp.conf file:
You can also just comment out that section entirely and see what happens (maybe you don't have legit keys?).

Then stop and restart the daemon and see what the log tells you. I have this in the daemon start up; you may want to add the logging to yours.
Hope all this helps some.

Thanks a tronayne for your time. I have done the changes as told by you.
My new ntp.conf is
Drift File

All lines are commented in keys

New, log file
Any idea, now ? :(

You know, the messages about port 123 look like they might be an indication of your problem -- seems like it's telling you that port 123 is in use (by who knows what). If you take a look-see at /etc/services there may be something there; e.g.,
is what my system shows (yours may be different, but port 123 is the standard NTP port) -- there should only be those two entries in /etc/services for port 123.

It could also be that NTP is already running when you try to start it (make sure to shut it down first) or it's getting started twice or some other weird thing. Check around in your daemon start scripts to make sure that there aren't two daemons getting launched; I don't know what Red Hat uses for starting daemons (init.d, rcn.d or what) but try searching the tree in /etc for any instances of ntpd. Something like
There should be one file that does the start up and shut down and one file that contains the actual path and execution instructions (like /usr/sbin/ntpd -g -p /var/run/ntpd.pid -l /tmp/ntp.log).

For what it's worth, my system (yours may be different) turns up these files:
If you don't have rc.d, you'll possibly have init.d instead, these things vary from system to system.

It just looks like there may be double entries somewhere in the start-up or something else has grabbed port 123 (and no other daemons should be accessing that port, it's meant for NTP). Too, take a look at the output of ps;
You should only see one process running; stop the daemon and make sure that it has stopped with ps (or you can kill -9 PID of the daemon(s) that may be running).

Hope this helps some.

Finally, solved !!
 

You were absolutely right there were many ntp processes running. I killed them all.

Now, after running the below commands, I waited for around 5 mins.
Now, this is working. Many thanks Tronayne, you are a gem.
I have modified ntp.conf a little bit. Short & Simple :)

Just one more small question, just for sake of knowledge:-
In /tmp/ntp.log it is showing as synchronized to stratum 1
while in ntpstat output, it is showing stratum 2.

What is this stratum and why it is showing differently (stratum 1 and stratum 2)

A server operating at stratum 1 belongs to the class of best NTP servers available, because it has a reference clock attached to it. As accurate reference clocks are expensive, only rather few of these servers are publically available.

A stratum 1 server should not only have a precise and well-maintained and calibrated reference clock, but also should be highly available as other systems may rely on its time service. Maybe that's the reason why not every NTP server with a reference clock is publically available.