Re: [gentoo-user] Server system date synchronizaion

[Nick Khamis]

On 4/26/13, Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@×××××.com> wrote:
> On 26/04/2013 19:11, Nick Khamis wrote:
>>>> >> Thank you so much for your response, and I totally understand the
>>>> >> effort vs. benefit challenge. However, is it really that much
>>>> >> trouble/unstable to setup our own ntp
>>>> >> server that syncs with our local isp, and have our internal network
>>>> >> sync
>>>> >> on it?
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > No, it's not THAT much effort. You can get by with installing ntpd on
>>> > a
>>> > single machine, pointing it at the upstream time server and pointing
>>> > all
>>> > your clients to it. It's clearly recorded in the config file, you
>>> > can't
>>> > go wrong.
>>> >
>>> > It's understanding how this weird thing called time works that is the
>>> > issue. Take for example leap seconds..... urggggggggggg...
>>> >
>>> > The basic question I suppose is why do you want to do it this way?
>>> > What
>>> > do you feel you will gain by doing it yourself?
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > --
>>> > Alan McKinnon
>>> > alan.mckinnon@×××××.com
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>> Hello Alan,
>>
>> Thank you so much for your time. Our voip cluster time always vary for
>> some reason....
>> And with long distance, that could mean upwards to a dollar a call.
>
>
> Ah, OK. That changes things quite a bit. I have a little bit of
> experience with that - I work for a large ISP, we have a large VOIP
> department and we run a stratum 2 time server that serves most of the
> country.
>
> First things first: you can't just stick any old upstream ntp server in
> your config and walk away. You are then reliant on the quality of that
> upstream, and far too often other time servers operate on a "good
> enough" policy - if it's accurate to about a second, it's good enough
> (and for desktop users i.e. most ISP clients, it is good enough).
>
> I don't know how big your operation is, if you have budget I suggest you
> invest in a proper master time source that is GPS-driven. We have a
> Symmetricom (http://www.symmetricom.com) but it's a mature market with
> several vendors. Shop around, prices are less than you'd expect (about
> the same as a decent mid-range server and much less than Cisco's
> routers...)
>
> Weather can get in the way, so back up the device with a decent second
> upstream. I have a good one available run by the Science and Technology
> Research part of the Dept of Trade and Industry and the third option is
> all the other big ISPs around.
>
> Depending on your accuracy needs you could get away without the GPS unit
> and just use a good upstream, but I'd fight for the budget for it - tell
> management it puts control of billing back in your hands, they always
> fall for that one :-)
>
> So the summary would be that I reckon ntpd will do what you want as long
> as you chose good reliable time sources. With that in hand, the config
> is easy as rather well documented. Shout here ont he list if you need a
> hand with this when you come to deployment time
>
>
>
>
> --
> Alan McKinnon
> alan.mckinnon@×××××.com
>
>
>

Any suggestions for a "reliable", use that word cautiously ntp server.
Requests are coming from canada. Was there not a project that dealt
with setting up a network across the globe just for serving up NTP
services? Did that marvelous idea die out?

N.