NTP-Setup-On-Solaris

Instructions for setting up an NTP client

1. Create the NTP configuration file: /etc/inet/ntp.conf with the following entries:

server  tick.brm.pri
server  tock.brm.pri
driftfile       /etc/inet/ntp.drift
slewalways yes
disable pll

driftfile: names a file which will be created by the xntpd daemon to hold information about the client clocks accuracy.

slewalways: the default is no - set to yes to force slew (adjust time slowly) rather than step (move to correct time) . The default on Solaris up to patch level 109667-03 was to slew ; on later revisions the default action is to step ( this could result in stepping backwards and could produce duplicate timestamps on certain applications such as SAP or Oracle).

disable pll: required if slewing is the preferred setting. This applies both to instances where patch 109667-03 is the default and to later versions where the default has been changed to ‘slewalways yes’

2. On Solaris 9 or earlier, restart the NTP daemon with the following commands:

/etc/rc2.d/S74xntpd stop
/etc/rc2.d/S74xntpd start

3. On Solaris 10 issue the following commands to restart the daemon:

svcadm enable svc:/network/ntp:default
svcadm refresh svc:/network/ntp:default
svcadm restart svc:/network/ntp:default

4. Test that the client is working by running ntpq -p. Should see something like this :-

# ntpq -p
     remote           refid      st t when poll reach   delay   offset    disp
==============================================================================
*fsds_bcc_ch_01. 78.79.86.76      5 u   39   64  377     1.22   -2.469    1.86

5. On the ntp server, the same ntp.conf file exists but the entries are :-

server          127.0.0.1 
driftfile       /etc/inet/ntp.drift

ie. the server is syncronising to itself.