[comp.protocols.time.ntp] Periodic bouts of insanity

H1C5962@ZEUS.TAMU.EDU (Lee Cox) (04/05/91)

I am running xntpd on several hosts, one of which I am using as a
stratum 2 server.  Lately, xntpd has started deciding, several times
daily, that every host with which it communicating is insane and starts
the process of synchronizing all over again.  We have been having
broadcast storms on the subnet from unruly PC's and AppleTalkers and I
assume that the clutter on the network is the probable cause.  Has
anyone else run into this problem and, if so, what can I do about it?
While I'm at it, does anyone know the status of NTP version 3 on UNIX
systems?

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 Lee Cox                          BITnet: H1C5962@TAMZEUS
                                  HEPnet: FNBIT::UTDAL::ZEUS::H1C5962
 Asst. Systems Manager              NREN: H1C5962@ZEUS.TAMU.EDU
 Academic Computing Services        SPAN: UTSPAN::UTADNX::ZEUS::H1C5962
 Texas A&M University             THEnet: ZEUS::H1C5962
 College Station, TX 77843-3154   GTEnet: (409)845-9577
                     Paranoia is our profession.
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ramus@WINDSAIL.NERSC.GOV (Joe Ramus) (04/05/91)

>> I am running xntpd on several hosts, one of which I am using as a
>> stratum 2 server.  Lately, xntpd has started deciding, several times
>> daily, that every host with which it communicating is insane and starts
>> the process of synchronizing all over again.  
>>  Lee Cox      

I have seen something similiar.  One of our Sun Sparc workstations is
used a lot for Graphics.  During the night, xntpd gets the time synched
pretty close to our time servers.  But during the day, it gets out of
synch.  This is most likely due to lost clock interrupts when doing the
heavy graphics work.

This particular machine is not a time server, so no harm is done.