Entering the NTP external source in PDC Emulator DC role

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ASKER

Thanks VB, that does make sense after all.

as for the flag, can I just specify like below:

0.au.pool.ntp.org,0x1 1.au.pool.ntp.org,0x1 3.au.pool.ntp.org,0x2 4.au.pool.ntp.org,0x2

would that be acceptable ?

SOLUTION

Mahesh

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ASKER

Mahesh,

So in this case I can just use the w32tm command line without worrying / confused myself about typing the hex flag values to the registry key?

w32tm /config /manualpeerlist:"0.au.pool.ntp.org 1.au.pool.ntp.org 3.au.pool.ntp.org 4.au.pool.ntp.org" /syncfromflags:manual /reliable:yes /update

Would that be good enough ?

do I have to do the following registry entry changes as well ?
Registry screenshot

Thanks VB, that does make sense after all.

as for the flag, can I just specify like below:

0.au.pool.ntp.org,0x1 1.au.pool.ntp.org,0x1 3.au.pool.ntp.org,0x2 4.au.pool.ntp.org,0x2

would that be acceptable ?

Yep that will work perfectly fine. Just realised I forgot 2.au.pool.ntp.org in that list though :)

ASKER

ah yes, the more the merrier :-)

is there any caveats or drawback if I put the NTP Pool FQDN rather than the IP Address ?
I'm still wondering which format to choose for the best performance.

SOLUTION

Mahesh

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Use the FQDN as I believe the ntp.pool.org servers are setup in round-robin DNS, which means the IP address can vary each time you resolve it. This is mainly done for redundancy purposes.

Whilst the 0x1, 0x2, etc. flags aren't compulsory, they are good to have as it determines how your NTP server should react if one of the time sources is unreachable. The flags can also be used to dictate how often it should poll the time source. For instance if you have a Special Poll Interval set but don't append the time source with 0x1 then the Special Poll Interval doesn't take affect.

They are there to give you more fine-grained control over your NTP server.

ASKER

ok, so I have executed the command:

w32tm /query /source
w32tm /query /status

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in the new domain controller VM, but somehow the result is not showing on the PDC emulator role ?
where and how to check the setting which overrides the default PDC emulator role as the definitive NTP ?

How did you configure the NTP server settings? Group Policy or via the registry on your PDC?

ASKER

This is the thing that I don't know yet.

I'm newly joined to this company and all of the server seems to get their time synch from various different source and I need to standardize it.

ASKER

This is the only entry that I can found so far from the Windows Server 2003 which currently running as the PDC Emulator role:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Parameters]
"type"="NTP"
"ServiceMain"="SvchostEntry_W32Time"
"ServiceDll"=C:\WINNT\system32\w32time.dll
"NtpServer"="24.56.178.140 64.147.116.229 64.250.229.100"

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why is that the server in the domain not getting the time synched from this one server consistently ?

The domain is one single domain in the forest.
Windows Server 2003 Functionality and Domain level.

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Mahesh

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This is the only entry that I can found so far from the Windows Server 2003 which currently running as the PDC Emulator role:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Parameters]
"type"="NTP"
"ServiceMain"="SvchostEntry_W32Time"
"ServiceDll"=C:\WINNT\system32\w32time.dll
"NtpServer"="24.56.178.140 64.147.116.229 64.250.229.100"

why is that the server in the domain not getting the time synched from this one server consistently ?

The domain is one single domain in the forest.
Windows Server 2003 Functionality and Domain level.

I can see you've opened a new EE question for this. Do you want to close this question since your original query has been answered and we pick it up in your other EE question?