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vmaganFlag for United States of America

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Server 2008 giving desktops wrong time.

Hi guys,

i have a new server 2008 system that is giving the desktops the wrong time. Its either 3 hours a head or behind. How do i adjust these settings to provide my desktops with the correct times?

Thanks
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Shane McKeown
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Things work fine. I have right time zone but still three hours a he'd on client machine.
If you have users from different time zones, I would configure the server to redirect the PC's local time zone to the server. That way, it wouldn't matter which TZ the server is in, the user will always see their own time zone.

You can do that in local policy on the Server by following these steps:
1.  Run GPEdit.msc
2.  Drill down to:
      Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Terminal Services\
      Terminal Server\Device and Resource Redirection
3.  Enable the policy called "Allow Time Zone redirection"

You can also enable the same policy if you are using group policy by editing the GPO that applies to the server.

If you don't have any GPOs applied to the terminal servers, you would have to change this setting in the local policy on each terminal server.  Users would just have to log off & back on to see the change.

To test the fix, enable that local policy, then change your local time zone to a different one (like Japan or Australia), then log on to verify that time zone is showing up for you on the server.  Change it back to what it should be, then log on again to verify that the time zone is correct on the server.

I hope this helps.

Alicia
Ok, few questions

1) What does the server sync its time from? Its own clock or NTP?
2) What clients are you running? XP or Win7?

From the server can you post outputs from these commands?

w32tm /monitor
w32tm /query /status

Also from clients run and output the results...
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smckeown77,

I believe the time is synced from its own clock. I havent made any adjustments so I believe it should be default.

All machines are running XP.

Here are the server results:

C:\Users\Administrator>w32tm/monitor
DC.local *** PDC ***[[fe80::a543:e779:8c7c:4d3b%11]:123]:
    ICMP: 0ms delay
    NTP: +0.0000000s offset from DC.local
        RefID: 'LOCL' [0x4C434F4C]
        Stratum: 1

Warning:
Reverse name resolution is best effort. It may not be
correct since RefID field in time packets differs across
NTP implementations and may not be using IP addresses.

For the 3nd cmd i received:

C:\Users\Administrator>w32tm/query/status
The command /query/status is unknown.
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Spike99,

I dont see that local policy in server 2008.
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Is it possible that our sonicwall firewall can be blocking the pcs from getting the right time? Making blocking a NTp port or something?
the one you want for time zone redirection is in this path:

Computer Settings \ Administrative Templates \ Windows Components \ Terminal Services \ Terminal Server \ Device and Resource Redirection
"Allow time zone redirection"

I can see that on one of our 2008 terminal servers.

Are your users in different time zones? If they are, I'm sure this will help: it helps us. We have users in almost every USA time zone from the East Coast to Hawaii.

The beauty of enabling this policy is that it doesn't matter what time zone the server  is in: users will always see their own time zone on the server.  So, you don't have to worry about the server's time zone so much: user times zone settings would the be the only concern.

I hope this helps,

Alicia
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ASKER

All users are in same time zone. Just to be clear this is not a terminal server. It's a domain controller on a 2008r2 box.

I don't see that policy.
You haven't executed the command right I don't think

Note this
w32tm_/query_/status - there are spaces between the /query and /status

Also yes the output from /monitor means the server is using hardware clock
What I wanted to see was these commands from a client - just to confirm they are using the server as the master clock, which will potentially explain where the difference is coming from(i.e. if they are sync'ing with another service)

Also these XP clients - all at SP3 and full patch level?
I do remember various patches related to time/timezone a long time ago, just to be sure its not a windows patch issue...
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ASKER

same error message.

C:\Documents and Settings\administrator.DC>w32tm /query /status
The command /query is unknown.

with or without the space same message.
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I ran this cmd and it took it successfully, but the time never changed. So i changed it myself, logged off and back on then the time changed back to the wrong time. It is 3 hrs ahead even tho the time zone is correct.

NET TIME %LOGONSERVER% /SET /Y
Sorry, my fault, those commands are depreciated...

Sorry what was the output from - w32tm /monitor
when run from the XP machine?
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ASKER

C:\Documents and Settings\administrator.DC>w32tm /monitor
DC.local *** PDC *** [192.168.1.10]:
    ICMP: 0ms delay.
    NTP: +0.0000000s offset from DC.local
        RefID: 'LOCL' [76.79.67.76]

C:\Documents and Settings\administrator
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ASKER

I even opened up NTP on port 123 udp on both the firewall and the local machine as a test and still nothing.
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I configured the 'allow time zone redirection' gpo that spike99 requested. I ran a gpresult and verified that I am getting the gpo but when i changed time zone to something else and restarted the timezone didnt change back to est.

Not sure if it matters but my server is a 64x OS. Just figured Ill throw it out there.

Any other suggestions?
Ok, well the only other question I had was the SP level on the XP clients - what level is it at? SP2 or SP3? What patch level? Latest updates all installed?

Strange for sure...the time source appears to be 76.79.67.76 which I am not sure who that is, possibly we need to move to another time source...are any of the machines behind this domain working ok? All XP clients just?
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All XPsp2 and sp3. I ran updates on one machine but same issue. None of the machines working since I installed new sever 2008r2.
Ok, this has to be a DST thing, the only thing I can think of...

See these posts(unless you've already researched and found these)

http://www.intelliadmin.com/index.php/2007/01/unofficial-windows-2000-daylight-saving-time-patch/
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/26883175/Windows-Server-2003-and-Windows-XP-Workstations-no-time-sync.html
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/914387

Also here's a small tool(I haven't tested) but may force the client to update correctly as a last resort...
http://www.timesynctool.com/

See if any of those will help...
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ASKER

I tried all the suggestions with no luck.

This is unbelievable. Never had this problem before.
Here's another link I found, maybe the server is the issue, since you've a mix of clients and none of those seems to work...

http://www.sysadminlab.net/windows/configuring-ntp-on-windows-2008-r2
If you've tried this before then I am also lost on this one...
@vmagan, recent posting on EE in relation to NTP stuff on a server, has some good info(some of which you've probably already seen), but may be worth a read over if you are still in bother...

https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/27857495/I-need-to-get-familiar-with-NTP-and-get-it-working-on-our-network-ASAP.html
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ASKER

The issue was the server had the wrong time zone. Smh once I changed that everything synced. Server had wrong zone but right time. Sorry for wasting your time. I overlooked your initial post.

Thx for your help.
Reason I thought the timezone was the issue was, since your clients were obviously authenticating to the server without issue it was the most likely reason(since when time isn't matching you cant login etc)

But glad you got it resolved...cheers