Hi all,

This is my first time setting up a NTP server, so please bare with me.
:-)

Im working on a private network with about 100 computers, a mix of
Solaris, AIX, Linux, and Windows.  I use these computers to run tests
and collect the logs in a central place to examime then latter.  My
problem is that I want to make sure that all of the timestampes in the
logs are the same.  I figured NTP was the best solution. :-) This lab
doesn't have access to the Internet so I can't use a public NTP server.
 So, I downloaded meinberg's NTP program and want to set it up as a
server.  Can Meinberg's NTP server be configured to server as a
timeserver without connecting to a public server?  If so can some one
point me to a good resouce for writing the NTP.conf file.


--Eric

At 10:34 AM -0700 2005-07-20, sniff@email.arizona.edu wrote:

> Im working on a private network with about 100 computers, a mix of
> Solaris, AIX, Linux, and Windows. I use these computers to run tests
> and collect the logs in a central place to examime then latter. My
> problem is that I want to make sure that all of the timestampes in the
> logs are the same. I figured NTP was the best solution. :-)

	NTP is a good way to keep all your systems in sync, yes. You 
need to connect it to some upstream time references one way or 
another, however.

> This lab
> doesn't have access to the Internet so I can't use a public NTP server.

	Okay, but this doesn't mean that you can't connect to upstream 
reference time services via radio, GPS, or other non-Internet method.

> So, I downloaded meinberg's NTP program and want to set it up as a
> server.

	It's not their program. It's a port of the Reference NTP 
Implementation for Windows, which I believe that Meinberg compiled 
for the benefit of the NTP community, and I believe that they may 
have also built the installer system. See 
<http://ntp.isc.org/bin/view/Main/SoftwareDownloads#Precompiled_packages_and_ports_t>.

> Can Meinberg's NTP server be configured to server as a
> timeserver without connecting to a public server?

	NTP is not designed to run in a completely disconnected network. 
Get yourself some reference clocks, and NTP should work well. 
Meinberg makes some excellent hardware refclocks, but there are also 
other sources as well.

> If so can some one
> point me to a good resouce for writing the NTP.conf file.

	The NTP FAQ is at <http://www.ntp.org/ntpfaq/NTP-a-faq.htm>. The 
official NTP documentation is at 
<http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~mills/ntp/html/index.html>. We've 
created community support page at 
<http://ntp.isc.org/bin/view/Support/WebHome> to try to help people 
in creating NTP configurations, and you're welcome to contribute to 
this page.

-- 
Brad Knowles, <brad@stop.mail-abuse.org>

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

 -- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), reply of the Pennsylvania
 Assembly to the Governor, November 11, 1755

 SAGE member since 1995. See <http://www.sage.org/> for more info.
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Hi Eric,

sniff@email.arizona.edu wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> This is my first time setting up a NTP server, so please bare with me.
> :-)
> 
> Im working on a private network with about 100 computers, a mix of
> Solaris, AIX, Linux, and Windows.  I use these computers to run tests
> and collect the logs in a central place to examime then latter.  My
> problem is that I want to make sure that all of the timestampes in the
> logs are the same.  I figured NTP was the best solution. :-) This lab
> doesn't have access to the Internet so I can't use a public NTP server.
>  So, I downloaded meinberg's NTP program and want to set it up as a
> server.  Can Meinberg's NTP server be configured to server as a
> timeserver without connecting to a public server?  If so can some one
> point me to a good resouce for writing the NTP.conf file.

First, as Brad has already mentioned in his reply, this is indeed not a
"Meinberg NTP" program. My colleague Heiko has just compiled the standard
NTP sources, and put the binaries into a GUI installer which cares about
copying the program files, creating the NTP service, etc.

If you really have an isolated network and just want to keep all computers
at the same time, just configure the clients to synchronize to the time
server machine, and configure the NTP service on the time server machine to
use its own local clock as reference time source, as described in
http://www.meinberg.de/english/info/ntp.htm#cfg_server_win

even though the local clock is not synchronized by another program in this
case.


Martin
- 
Martin Burnicki

Meinberg Funkuhren
Bad Pyrmont
Germany

Thank you both for your replies :-)

Sorry for calling it "Meinberg's NTP server".    This was very helpful