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How do I configure external NTP source on AD domain controllers (using Group Policy)

There's a wealth of information on the net about the registry settings to choose, but I'd like to do this using Group Policy. I know there's a section in "Comp-->Admin...-->System-->Windows Time", but I'm not sure how much of it I need to change, and whether I can do it all with Group Policy.

Many thanks for any help,
Steve :)

tigermatt

I wouldn't do it through Group Policy. The problem with doing it using that method is you will be configuring it on all your servers, which is a bad configuration. While they should all technically go and get the time from the same source, and then obviously be in sync, it is much better to have one single known source of time in the domain - this is almost always the server holding the PDC Emulator FSMO role.

If you want the configuration procedure for setting this server up to sync time, it's as follows:

Ensure the Windows Time service is set to start automatically, then start the service
Open command prompt
net stop w32time
w32tm -unregister
w32tm -register
net start w32time
net time /setsntp:time.nist.gov
w32tm /config /syncfromflags:MANUAL
net stop w32time && net start w32time
w32tm /resync /rediscover

-tigermatt

sda100

ASKER

Thanks tigermatt,

I have a mixed Windows/Unix environment, and due to it's grater configurability I@ve set up one of the Unix servers to be the NTP server for my site. It would make sense to me, to have the Active Directory Domain Controllers update from that Unix server instead of time.windows.com, but as we have a few DCs I wanted to change it with Group Policy rather than te registry. All the other domain members are fine as they'll pick their time up from the DCs anyway. Do you see why I want to do it through Group Policy now, and is it possible?

Thanks,
Steve

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tigermatt

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