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12.21.2007 at 08:12AM PST, ID: 23038424
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6.6

Help configuring network time synchronization

Zone: Microsoft Server
Tags: xp, business, network, server, synchronization
Hi,
We have a windows small business server 2000 and approx 30 XP workstations.  I would like to have all of the clients synchronize their clocks to the server, and have the server use an external source (like time.windows.com) to update it's time.

Is there a way to have the workstation clocks resync every 24 hours and not just when they are restarted?

Thanks
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Question Stats
Zone: OS
Question Asked By: pdbernier
Solution Provided By: SteveH_UK
Participating Experts: 2
Solution Grade: A
Views: 27
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12.21.2007 at 08:16AM PST, ID: 20514514
QuiteSupersonic:

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12.21.2007 at 08:25AM PST, ID: 20514598
SteveH_UK:

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12.21.2007 at 08:26AM PST, ID: 20514607
SteveH_UK:

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12.27.2007 at 11:07AM PST, ID: 20536180
pdbernier:

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12.27.2007 at 11:53AM PST, ID: 20536592
SteveH_UK:

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12.27.2007 at 02:51PM PST, ID: 20538020
pdbernier:

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12.27.2007 at 02:59PM PST, ID: 20538089
pdbernier:

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12.28.2007 at 04:25AM PST, ID: 20541218
SteveH_UK:

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12.28.2007 at 07:59AM PST, ID: 20542658
pdbernier:

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12.28.2007 at 09:53AM PST, ID: 20543603
pdbernier:

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12.30.2007 at 12:35AM PST, ID: 20550280
SteveH_UK:

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12.31.2007 at 07:56AM PST, ID: 20555606
pdbernier:

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01.01.2008 at 01:09AM PST, ID: 20559130
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12.21.2007 at 08:16AM PST, ID: 20514514
QuiteSupersonic:
Not without programming scripts or installing 3rd party software on there.  

http://shareware.pcmag.com/product.php%5Bid%5D58428%5BSiteID%5Dpcmag
 
12.21.2007 at 08:25AM PST, ID: 20514598
SteveH_UK:
Actually QUiteSupersonic is incorrect.  Using a Windows domain, the time service does this job.

See http://www.experts-exchange.com/OS/Microsoft_Operating_Systems/Server/2003_Server/Q_22978705.html for an example of how to configure it.
 
12.21.2007 at 08:26AM PST, ID: 20514607
SteveH_UK:
 
12.27.2007 at 11:07AM PST, ID: 20536180
pdbernier:
I followed the information on the links you provided, but I still have a problem.

I set the W32Time/parameters/NtpServer value to 207.46.197.32 (time.windows.com).  Over the weekend the time has apparently drifted off by approx 6 minutes.

Here are the contents of the HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32time\Parameters
Adj 0x0002625a (156250)
LocalNTP 0x00000001 (1)
MaxAllowedClockErrInSecs 0x00000005 (5)
msSkewPerDay 18678.0000
NtpServer 207.46.197.32
Period 24
ReliableTimeSource 0x00000001 (1)
type NTP

I stopped the time service and forced a resync (w32tm -s).  it returned this 'RPC to local server returned oX6b5' which I think means it worked.  I then restarted the time service and checked the time using 'Net Time'.  It was still off by 6 minutes.

Any thoughts?
 
12.27.2007 at 11:53AM PST, ID: 20536592
SteveH_UK:
Firstly, can you confirm that you are setting these parameters on the server?  The clients will attempt to take the time from the server when connected.

Assuming that is the case, you may also want to change the NtpServer setting to:

time.microsoft.com,0x01

This is the default for non-domain Windows computers (http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/b43a025f-cce2-4c82-b3ea-3b95d482db3a1033.mspx?mfr=true).

This may also help: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/816042.

 
12.27.2007 at 02:51PM PST, ID: 20538020
pdbernier:
Yes, these are the server settings.

I changed the ntpServer to time.microsoft.com,0x01

After stopping and starting the w32tm it resync'd to the proper time after about 30 seconds.

Now that this is working, will all of the clients automatically update their clocks, or do I need to force them to update?
 
12.27.2007 at 02:59PM PST, ID: 20538089
pdbernier:
Right after i sent the last post, the time jumped back to 6 minutes fast.  I again stopped the w32time service, resync'd using w32tm -s, then restarted the service and after a few minutes the server displayed to correct time?

This server is the domain controller (Small Business server 2000), but we have other windows 2000 servers on the network.  Could the other servers be somehow causing problems?
 
12.28.2007 at 04:25AM PST, ID: 20541218
SteveH_UK:
Ok.  Let's take a step back.  Firstly, the time service is able to correctly sync with the public NTP server, otherwise it wouldn't correct the time.  Secondly, a sudden shift of 6 minutes is not due to a clock error, it wouldn't be so sudden or consistent --- normally it would run slower or faster than the accurate clock.  So it does sound like it is synchronising with other equipment on your network.  Let's have a closer look at your settings (compare http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223184):

LocalNTP 0x00000001 (1)
This causes the time service to always run as an SNTP service.  This should not be needed, but if it is the same on other servers that may cause problems.  0 is ok for domain controllers.

MaxAllowedClockErrInSecs 0x00000005 (5)
5 seconds error sounds ok.

NtpServer 207.46.197.32
Looks fine

Period 24
24 adjustments per day, sounds fine.

ReliableTimeSource 0x00000001 (1)
Is appropriate for a domain controller.

type NTP
Is correct

So my next questions are:

1)  Is the time service actually running?  Check in Control Panel --> Administrative Tools -> Services
2)  Is the time service able to connect to the time server through the firewall?  You have to allow the NTP protocol (UDP 123) from UDP 123 to UDP 123.  When testing, the source port can be more than 1024 which can frustrate the testing process.
3)  Is this server the only domain controller?  If another domain controller has the PDC-emulator role then that server should be doing the time synchronisation.

See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/224799/ and http://support.microsoft.com/kb/216734/EN-US/, but it does look like that you've followed article 216734.

My current best guess is that another server is providing the time and that server is configured to be the authority.  Check which server has the PDC-emulator role and make sure no other server is connecting to an external NTP source.
Accepted Solution
 
12.28.2007 at 07:59AM PST, ID: 20542658
pdbernier:
I checked and the w32time service is running.
I went through the registry on each of the other servers.  On all the type value was set to Nt5DS.  I changed the type to NTP and added the key of NtpServer and pointed it to our domain controller (the small business server).

Since the domain controller is a small business server version, I don't think I can have another domain controller on the network.  How can I check to make sure?
 
12.28.2007 at 09:53AM PST, ID: 20543603
pdbernier:
I manually set the server time using the TIME command.  That seems to have stuck.

After I did this I forced some of the clients to resync (w32tm /resync) and they correct their time to the server time I set above.

So it looks more like the server resync is not working properly.  It is currently going out to time.windows.com,0x01 and when I do a resync on the server (w32tm -s) it returns 'RPC to local server returned 0x6b5', which I believe means that it was successful.
 
12.30.2007 at 12:35AM PST, ID: 20550280
SteveH_UK:
If you use "Active Directory Users & Computers" you will be able to see how many domain controllers you have by looking in the Domain Controllers container.

Ok.  Next, your clients should be using the Nt5DS setting as this tells them to set their clocks to the Active Directory server.  The NTP setting is not appropriate to connect to a Windows Time Service and may cause errors.

It would be worth doing the following (with the time service stopped):

w32tm /v /once

This will produce some debugging information that we can use to confirm what the external time server is providing.
 
12.31.2007 at 07:56AM PST, ID: 20555606
pdbernier:
Here is the results from the w32tm /v/once command

It looked like it failed from response below.  I changed the Reg key value to the IP address for time.windows.com (207.46.197.23) and it worked.   It looks like it cannot resolve the IP address from time.windows.com

Is there a quick way to set all of the clients to the Nt5DS setting, or do I need to go to each client to make the change?

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>w32tm /v /once
W32Time: BEGIN:InitAdjIncr
W32Time:    Adj 156250 , Incr 156250  fAdjust 0
W32Time: END:Line 2503
W32Time: BEGIN:TsUpTheThread
W32Time: END  Line 1407
W32Time: TimeMMInit()
W32Time: Kernel timer : using default maximum resolution
W32Time:                MaximumTime = 156250
W32Time:                CurrentTime = 9766
W32Time: Timer calibrated, looped 1 times
W32Time: BEGIN:InitTmCfg
W32Time: END:Line 807
W32Time: BEGIN:InitTmCli
W32Time: END:Line 2596
W32Time: BEGIN:InitTmData
W32Time: END:Line 2618
W32Time: AvoidTimeSyncOnWan 0
W32Time: ntpserver - time.microsoft.com,0x01
W32Time: BEGIN:CMOSSynchSet
W32Time:    Setting adjustment 156250 - Bool  0
W32Time:    BEGIN:SetTSTimeRes
W32Time:    END:Line 1295
W32Time: END:Line 864
W32Time: BEGIN:InitializeDC
W32Time:    BEGIN:GetRole
W32Time:       Role is 'PDC'
W32Time:    END  Line 672
W32Time:    BEGIN:FetchParentDomainName
W32Time:       NetLogonGetTimeServiceParentDomain() returned 54b with ptr 0
W32Time:    END:Line 782
W32Time: END:Line 704
W32Time: Server: Binding to 1 NIC.
W32Time: Advertising that I'm a Time Service Provider
W32Time: BEGIN:TsUpTheThread
W32Time: END  Line 1407
W32Time: NTP(S): waiting for datagram...
W32Time: timeBeginPeriod: setting resolution 9
W32Time: BEGIN:TimeSync
W32Time:    BEGIN:FGetType
W32Time:    END  Line 254
W32Time:    BEGIN:FDoTimeNTPType
W32Time:       BEGIN:ChooseNTPServer
W32Time:       END  Line 2178
W32Time:       BEGIN:GetSocketForSynch
W32Time:          NTP: ntpptrs[0] - TIME.MICROSOFT.COM
W32Time:          rgbNTPServer TIME.MICROSOFT.COM
W32Time:          NTP: gethostbyname failed
W32Time:          Port Pinging to - 123
W32Time:          NTP: connect failed
W32Time:       END:Line 1170
W32Time:       BEGIN:GetDefaultRid
W32Time:       END  Line 2359
W32Time:       BEGIN:ComputeDelay
W32Time:          BEGIN:NTPTry -- init
W32Time:          END  Line 1683
W32Time:          BEGIN:NTPTry -- try
W32Time:             BEGIN:ComputeInterval
W32Time:                interval -28800000
W32Time:             END  Line 2479
W32Time:             Sending to server  48 bytes...
W32Time:             NTP: send failed! - 10057
W32Time:             Logging event 0x8000000B. 15 min until this event is allowe
d again.
W32Time:             0x8000000B reported to System Log in Event Viewer
W32Time:          END  Line 1951
W32Time:          Time source failed to produce usable timestamp.
W32Time:          BEGIN:NTPTry -- fail
W32Time:          END  Line 1683
W32Time:          Time Out occured in sockets
W32Time:          BEGIN:NTPTry -- try
W32Time:             BEGIN:ComputeInterval
W32Time:                interval -28800000
W32Time:             END  Line 2479
W32Time:             Sending to server  48 bytes...
W32Time:             NTP: send failed! - 10057
W32Time:             Rejecting logging event 0x8000000B. 900 sec until this even
t is allowed.
W32Time:          END  Line 1951
W32Time:          Time source failed to produce usable timestamp.
W32Time:          BEGIN:NTPTry -- fail
W32Time:          END  Line 1683
W32Time:          Time Out occured in sockets
W32Time:          BEGIN:NTPTry -- try
W32Time:             BEGIN:ComputeInterval
W32Time:                interval -28800000
W32Time:             END  Line 2479
W32Time:             Sending to server  48 bytes...
W32Time:             NTP: send failed! - 10057
W32Time:             Rejecting logging event 0x8000000B. 899 sec until this even
t is allowed.
W32Time:          END  Line 1949
W32Time:          Time source failed to produce usable timestamp.
W32Time:          BEGIN:NTPTry -- fail
W32Time:          END  Line 1683
W32Time:       END  Line 1496
W32Time:    END  Line 368
W32Time:    BEGIN:ComputePostTimeData
W32Time:       BEGIN:ComputeInterval
W32Time:          interval -28800000
W32Time:       END  Line 2479
W32Time:       BEGIN:ComputeSleepStuff
W32Time:          BEGIN:BeenSoLongNow
W32Time:             BEGIN:TimeDiff
W32Time:                SystemTimeToFileTime failed.
W32Time:             END  Line 990
W32Time:             Computed stagger is 0ms, bias is 0ms
W32Time:             Time until next sync - 2699.960s
W32Time:          END:Line 816
W32Time:       END:Line 221
W32Time:    END:Line 196
W32Time:    BEGIN:TermTime
W32Time:       NTP(S): received shutdown notification.
W32Time:       TimeMMCleanup()
W32Time:       BEGIN:FinishCleanup
W32Time:          BEGIN:TsUpTheThread
W32Time:          END  Line 1407
W32Time:          Inform NetLogon That you are not a TS Provider
W32Time:          BEGIN:UnInitializeDC
W32Time:             Ptrs 0 - 0
W32Time:          END:Line 727
W32Time:          Time service stopped.
W32Time:       END:Line 407
 
01.01.2008 at 01:09AM PST, ID: 20559130
SteveH_UK:
For the DNS, try using ",0x1" (without the quotes) at the end of the DNS name, i.e. time.windows.com,0x1

Also check that the server can correctly resolve time.windows.com using both of its configured DNS servers.

For the registry changes, your best bet is to export or create a registry file that just makes the required change.  See attached snippet.  You could use it as part of your login script as follows:

reg.exe /IMPORT %LOGONSERVER%\NETLOGON\UseADTime.reg




1:
2:
3:
4:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
 
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Parameters]
"Type"="NT5DS"
Open in New Window
 
 
SteveH_UK
02.22.2008 at 06:28AM PST, ID: 20957541
Hope you got it sorted.  Thanks for the points :)
 
 
 
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