Topic: Time sync issues

[peterhocking]

Hi

I have a version 7.3 SME server which is in gateway/server mode.

For some time, it has been gaining time even though it has been set to sync with a time server on the Internet. I've tried other time servers, but the issue still occurs. The time zone is set correctly & the server can communicate with the Internet. It is behind a Netgear ADSL modem/router with all the usual ports forwarded to it.

Any idea?

Many thanks,

Peter

[pfloor]

This is a common problem if you are running under vmware, are you running under vmware?

[peterhocking]

No, I'm not running under VM Ware. I have it running on an Athlon 2400 with 1 gig of RAM & a pair of 250 gig hard drives & 2 NICs.

Peter

[JonB]

Peter,

Hows it going?

Losing or gaining time is usually a good indication that the CMOS battery on the Motherboard is dying. Try replacing the battery and see what happens.

Jon

[peterhocking]

Hi Jon

Things are great here in Canberra, how are things in the land od the long white cloud? 

I would have thought that syncing to a network time server would have over ridden the vagaries of a failing CMOS battery.

I'll check it out anyhow.

Regards,

Peter

[JonB]

Things are great across the ditch. Best summer in years.

What do your ntpd logs say?

Jon

[peterhocking]

Sorry for the delay in replying to this. At the time I had turned time syncronisation off, so I went & turned it back on.

BTW, I'd had time sysncronisation turned off for a number of days & the time was still correct. Since I've turned it back on on the 20th of this month, my server has gained apprx 17 minutes. Here is the last part of the log for the 22nd, It hasn't logged anything since then. This is from /var/log/ntpd/current, (I'm currently using au.pool.ntp.org as the time server, though I have used others including the default one);

2008-02-22 12:17:07.794350500 22 Feb 12:17:07 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 192.189.54.17, stratum 2
2008-02-22 12:21:20.251622500 22 Feb 12:21:25 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 203.80.162.195, stratum 2
2008-02-22 12:21:20.251629500 22 Feb 12:21:20 ntpd[13109]: time reset -4.759635 s
2008-02-22 12:25:37.390754500 22 Feb 12:25:37 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to LOCAL(0), stratum 10
2008-02-22 12:28:50.554377500 22 Feb 12:28:50 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 192.189.54.33, stratum 3
2008-02-22 12:29:59.662765500 22 Feb 12:29:59 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 203.82.209.217, stratum 2
2008-02-22 12:35:17.971857500 22 Feb 12:35:17 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 203.80.162.195, stratum 2
2008-02-22 12:37:29.049834500 22 Feb 12:37:29 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 192.189.54.33, stratum 3
2008-02-22 12:38:27.045677500 22 Feb 12:38:27 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 192.189.54.17, stratum 2
2008-02-22 12:40:40.223475500 22 Feb 12:40:40 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 203.80.162.195, stratum 2
2008-02-22 12:41:46.291700500 22 Feb 12:41:46 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 192.189.54.17, stratum 2
2008-02-22 12:46:01.498277500 22 Feb 12:46:01 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 203.82.209.217, stratum 2
2008-02-22 12:49:08.340144500 22 Feb 12:49:14 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 192.189.54.33, stratum 2
2008-02-22 12:49:08.340151500 22 Feb 12:49:08 ntpd[13109]: time reset -6.345442 s
2008-02-22 12:53:27.470588500 22 Feb 12:53:27 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to LOCAL(0), stratum 10
2008-02-22 12:54:29.567814500 22 Feb 12:54:29 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 203.82.209.217, stratum 2
2008-02-22 12:58:46.869177500 22 Feb 12:58:46 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 192.189.54.17, stratum 2
2008-02-22 12:58:49.743392500 22 Feb 12:58:49 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 192.189.54.33, stratum 3
2008-02-22 12:58:49.743399500 22 Feb 12:58:49 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 192.189.54.17, stratum 2
2008-02-22 13:02:02.907078500 22 Feb 13:02:02 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 203.82.209.217, stratum 2
2008-02-22 13:05:09.157397500 22 Feb 13:05:09 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 192.189.54.33, stratum 2
2008-02-22 13:06:20.126978500 22 Feb 13:06:20 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 203.80.162.195, stratum 2
2008-02-22 13:07:16.224414500 22 Feb 13:07:16 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 192.189.54.17, stratum 2
2008-02-22 13:07:28.227761500 22 Feb 13:07:28 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 203.82.209.217, stratum 2
2008-02-22 13:13:42.637226500 22 Feb 13:13:42 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 192.189.54.17, stratum 2
2008-02-22 13:14:56.350208500 22 Feb 13:15:01 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 192.189.54.33, stratum 3
2008-02-22 13:14:56.350215500 22 Feb 13:14:56 ntpd[13109]: time reset -5.302887 s
2008-02-22 13:19:15.488340500 22 Feb 13:19:15 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to LOCAL(0), stratum 10
2008-02-22 13:20:21.545351500 22 Feb 13:20:21 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 203.82.209.217, stratum 2
2008-02-22 13:25:35.933472500 22 Feb 13:25:35 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 203.80.162.195, stratum 2
2008-02-22 13:28:56.068232500 22 Feb 13:28:56 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 192.189.54.33, stratum 3
2008-02-22 13:29:57.079922500 22 Feb 13:29:57 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 203.82.209.217, stratum 2
2008-02-22 13:33:19.208069500 22 Feb 13:33:19 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 192.189.54.17, stratum 2
2008-02-22 13:37:34.733779500 22 Feb 13:37:39 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 203.80.162.195, stratum 2
2008-02-22 13:37:34.733786500 22 Feb 13:37:34 ntpd[13109]: time reset -4.694776 s
2008-02-22 13:41:50.951778500 22 Feb 13:41:50 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to LOCAL(0), stratum 10
2008-02-22 13:44:00.062132500 22 Feb 13:44:00 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 203.80.162.195, stratum 2
2008-02-22 13:45:05.117250500 22 Feb 13:45:05 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 203.80.162.195, stratum 2
2008-02-22 13:45:08.163119500 22 Feb 13:45:08 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 192.189.54.33, stratum 2
2008-02-22 13:46:13.292677500 22 Feb 13:46:13 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 192.189.54.17, stratum 2
2008-02-22 13:48:22.327702500 22 Feb 13:48:22 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 203.80.162.195, stratum 2
2008-02-22 13:53:32.597978500 22 Feb 13:53:32 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 192.189.54.17, stratum 2
2008-02-22 13:55:44.660025500 22 Feb 13:55:44 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 192.189.54.33, stratum 3
2008-02-22 13:55:49.742227500 22 Feb 13:55:49 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 203.80.162.195, stratum 2
2008-02-22 14:01:02.989011500 22 Feb 14:01:02 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to LOCAL(0), stratum 10
2008-02-22 14:01:16.010145500 22 Feb 14:01:16 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 203.82.209.217, stratum 2
2008-02-22 14:03:13.047018500 22 Feb 14:03:13 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 192.189.54.17, stratum 2
2008-02-22 14:03:24.098229500 22 Feb 14:03:24 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 203.80.162.195, stratum 2
2008-02-22 14:09:33.419006500 22 Feb 14:09:33 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 192.189.54.17, stratum 2
2008-02-22 14:10:42.427938500 22 Feb 14:10:42 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 203.80.162.195, stratum 2
2008-02-22 14:17:05.853400500 22 Feb 14:17:05 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to LOCAL(0), stratum 10
2008-02-22 14:18:15.812616500 22 Feb 14:18:15 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 192.189.54.17, stratum 2
2008-02-22 14:19:13.911658500 22 Feb 14:19:13 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 203.82.209.217, stratum 2
2008-02-22 14:25:51.200392500 22 Feb 14:25:51 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to 203.80.162.195, stratum 2
2008-02-22 14:28:00.309769500 22 Feb 14:28:00 ntpd[13109]: synchronized to LOCAL(0), stratum 10

It stopped logging on the 22nd, I don't know why.

Regards

Peter

[CharlieBrady]

Things are great across the ditch.

That'd be "dtch" wouldn't 't?

Shouldn't this be in the bug tracker?

[JonB]

That'd be "dtch" wouldn't 't?

Along with 'fush and chups'

I still suspect that the CMOS battery is on the way out causing the clock to speed up. ntpd is making some major time adjustments, 5 sec+, almost every hour to the point where it appears to stop polling.

Peter,

Take this to the bugtracker and you didn't say whether you replaced the CMOS battery.

Jon

[peterhocking]

Will do