Question

Solaris 10, NTP no server for synchronization found

Asked by: ch9999

I have a Solaris 10 server that is not serving/getting time correctly.  
When I run a ntpq -p  I can see that none have the * indicator that I was expecting( and I have this on a solaris 8 server)
 ntpq -p
     remote           refid      st t when poll reach   delay   offset    disp
=============================================================================
 time.nist.gov   0.0.0.0         16 -    -   64    0     0.00    0.000 16000.0
 nist1.symmetric 0.0.0.0         16 -    -   64    0     0.00    0.000 16000.0
 time-A.timefreq 0.0.0.0         16 -    -   64    0     0.00    0.000 16000.0
 time-b.nist.gov 0.0.0.0         16 -    -   64    0     0.00    0.000 16000.0

NTP.conf
# pwd
/etc/inet
# more ntp.conf
server  time.nist.gov
server  nist1.datum.com
server  time-a.timefreq.bldrdoc.gov
server  time-b.nist.gov
server  time-c.timefreq.bldrdoc.gov

driftfile /var/ntp/ntp.drift

I can ping time.nist.gov and I have a solaris 8 server using it fine
NTP is running
ps -ef | grep ntp
    root  5740  5333   0 15:14:29 console     0:00 grep ntp
    root  5295     1   0   Sep 23 ?           0:53 /usr/lib/inet/xntpd
I have restarted NTP and it says no server suitable for synchronization found
I have run a ntpdate -u -d time.nist.gov and I don't get any failure

Any ideas on what it wrong?  Or a work around that can get me going?  I have other servers looking at this box for time and this is causing us issues.  I do have a Solaris 8 server that is working correctly.  I have compared setup and so far I don't see anything that stands out.  

Thank you for your help.


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Asked On
2009-09-25 at 08:25:00ID24762024
Tags

solaris

,

NTP

Topics

Sun Solaris

,

Unix Setup

,

Unix Networking

Participating Experts
3
Points
500
Comments
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Answers

 

by: medveddPosted on 2009-09-25 at 08:36:11ID: 25424098

Do you have any firewalls that blocks UDP traffic? ntpd uses UDP port 123, ntpdate -u -d uses unprivileged UDP port (above 1024).

 

by: nemws1Posted on 2009-09-25 at 09:17:38ID: 25424471

Your ntp.conf file looks fine, although most people are now using the server list I'm attaching (assuming you're in the U.S.).

I'm assuming you're running ntp under svc.

See if you can get any more info from debugging mode (I'm assuming you're running ntp under svc):

svcadm disable -t ntp
/usr/lib/inet/xntpd -d

Does this report anything useful?

server 0.us.pool.ntp.org
server 1.us.pool.ntp.org
server 2.us.pool.ntp.org
server 3.us.pool.ntp.org
server 0.north-america.pool.ntp.org
server 1.north-america.pool.ntp.org
server 2.north-america.pool.ntp.org
                                              
1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
6:
7:

Select allOpen in new window

 

by: bluPosted on 2009-09-25 at 09:36:51ID: 25424605

The output of ntpq shows pretty clearly that there have been no acceptable packets received from any of the servers. So, either your packets do not reach them, they do not respond or their packets do not reach you.

I am not sure what all of those servers are, but I do know that the nist.gov servers allow ntpq queries. Try running "ntpq -p" against the servers, i.e. "ntpq -p time.nost.gov"  See if you get a response to that.

Try adding a server line for your Solaris 8 server. Also, I would include gathering the peerstats and loopstats info. See /etc/inet/ntp.server for an example of how to set that up.

It sounds like a firewall issue. Try stopping the NTP service, running the ntpdate command just as it is in
the start method and see how that goes. That is, run "ntpdate time.nist.gov"

 

by: ch9999Posted on 2009-09-25 at 10:51:44ID: 25425369

I am told that I do not have a firewall blocking- but any way that I can prove that?  

After I run :
svcadm disable -t ntp
/usr/lib/inet/xntpd -d
Do I just run svcadm enable to return to normal?

# ntpq -p time.nist.gov
     remote           refid      st t when poll reach   delay   offset    disp
==============================================================================
*LOCAL(0)        .ACTS.           0 l    -   64  377     0.00    0.000    0.92

svcadm disable ntp
# ntpdate time.nist.gov
25 Sep 17:48:02 ntpdate[5768]: no server suitable for synchronization found


I will also try adding the line to the solaris 8 server

 

by: ch9999Posted on 2009-09-25 at 11:03:23ID: 25425512

I added the line for the solaris 8 server to the ntp.conf file of the non working solaris 10 server and then ran a svcadm restart ntp

 ntpq -p
     remote           refid      st t when poll reach   delay   offset    disp
==============================================================================
+time.nist.gov   .ACTS.           1 u   26   64   37    59.75  -10.579  875.20
-nist1.symmetric .ACTS.           1 u   26   64   37     5.33   -2.275  875.09
+time-B.timefreq .ACTS.           1 u   26   64   37    55.22  -11.871  875.27
-time-b.nist.gov .ACTS.           1 u   26   64   37   152.31   30.872  889.50
*time-C.timefreq .ACTS.           1 u   26   64   37    55.13  -12.097  875.14
-192.1##.##.###  time.nist.gov    2 u   26   64   37     0.40  -13.261  875.09

 

by: ch9999Posted on 2009-09-25 at 11:08:58ID: 25425580

help me understand the results please- after reading the line it appears that we are synching with time.nist now.  I guess I thought we would be synching to the other solaris server=

 

by: nemws1Posted on 2009-09-25 at 11:09:18ID: 25425582

Well, you should leave a window open with '/usr/lib/inet/xntpd -d' running - it should NOT exit until you Ctrl-C.


To restart via svc, run:
svcadm enable ntp


Based on your last post, http:#25425512 - this is being run on your Solaris 8 server, right?  Because that looks like its working.

Does /etc/ipf/ipf.conf contain anything?

 

by: bluPosted on 2009-09-25 at 11:11:35ID: 25425602

You could try running the failed ntpdate again this time with -d and post the results. However, from the last ntpq output, NTP is working. The xntpd process is now talking to both the Solaris 8 machine as well as the internet servers. As I said before, you might want to add the stats gathering so that if the problem happens again, you can see why.

 

by: nemws1Posted on 2009-09-25 at 11:22:23ID: 25425725

One other note... I've run into a similar problem when I was having DNS problems.  'named' would die, and then 'xntp' would freak out, obviously because it couldn't find the hosts.

I don't think that's the problem here, but just wanted to mention it if somebody else has a similar problem and finds this question.

 

by: ch9999Posted on 2009-09-25 at 11:25:59ID: 25425760

Yes it does appear to be working now (that post was from solaris 10).  I had restarted ntp several times previously with no luck.  I had not run a disable/enable. previously  So not sure if that is what helped to correct the issue.  Do you think that contributed?
Only thing I did different today:
disable ntp
ntpdate time.nist.gov (received the synch failure)
enabled ntp
added the solaris 8 line to ntp.conf
svcadm restart ntp
And now I appear to be connected-  I appreciate the help.  Do you think the enable/disable had something to do with this?

 

by: nemws1Posted on 2009-09-25 at 11:29:43ID: 25425805

Actually, I do not think so.  I'm not sure what happened and why it is now working.  You were able to see it via a 'ps', so obviously it was enabled and running.

For the heck of it, do this:

svcadm disable -t ntp
* remove the line for your solaris 8 box
svcadm enable ntp
ntpq -p

And see if it *stops* working.

 

by: bluPosted on 2009-09-25 at 11:46:26ID: 25425962

The problem clearly was transient, since adding the solaris 8 server would have had no effect on running ntpdate by hand.  It doesn't seem likely that a DNS failure caused this problem, since the ntpq -p was correctly returning the IP addresses of the configured servers, as evidenced by the correct hostname being printed by ntpq. The fact that the "when" column was blanks indicates that there were never any packets that were received from the servers.

As i said before, you should add the stats files so there will be evidence of the problem if it happens again.

 

by: ch9999Posted on 2009-09-25 at 12:40:58ID: 31633619

I am not 100% sure why this resolved.  But it is working now and I have some helpful information for troubleshooting- add peerstats/loopstats

Thank you

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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