knocking at RDATE's doors. Oh, seems some of them are opened, some are closed

Community Bar Sport
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RedQueen # myRTC -l /etc/rdate/servers-list

knocking at nist1.aol-va.symmetricom.com's door ... failure
knocking at nist1.columbiacountyga.gov's door ... failure
knocking at nist1-atl.ustiming.org's door ... failure
knocking at nist1-chi.ustiming.org's door ... failure
knocking at nist.expertsmi.com's door ... failure
knocking at nisttime.carsoncity.k12.mi.us's door ... success
knocking at nist1-lnk.binary.net's door ... success
knocking at wwv.nist.gov's door ... success
knocking at time.nist.gov's door ... success
knocking at utcnist.colorado.edu's door ... success
knocking at utcnist2.colorado.edu's door ... success
knocking at ntp-nist.ldsbc.edu's door ... failure
knocking at nist1-lv.ustiming.org's door ... failure
knocking at nist-time-server.eoni.com's door ... success
knocking at nist1.aol-ca.symmetricom.com's door ... failure
knocking at nist1.symmetricom.com's door ... failure
knocking at nist1-sj.ustiming.org's door ... failure
knocking at nist1-la.ustiming.org's door ... failure
knocking at yoyo.aarnet.edu.au's door ... failure
knocking at wuarchive.wustl.edu's door ... failure
knocking at vtserf.cc.vt.edu's door ... failure
knocking at timeserver.cs.umb.edu's door ... failure
knocking at sundial.columbia.edu's door ... failure
knocking at salmon.maths.tcd.ie's door ... failure
knocking at ntp4.strath.ac.uk's door ... failure
knocking at ntp3.strath.ac.uk's door ... failure
knocking at ntp2.strath.ac.uk's door ... failure
knocking at ntp-2.cso.uiuc.edu's door ... failure
knocking at ntp1.strath.ac.uk's door ... failure
knocking at ntp-1.cso.uiuc.edu's door ... failure
knocking at ntp0.strath.ac.uk's door ... failure
knocking at ntp-0.cso.uiuc.edu's door ... failure
knocking at ntp0.cornell.edu's door ... failure
knocking at ntp.univ-lyon1.fr's door ... failure
knocking at ntp.olivetti.com's door ... failure
knocking at ntp.css.gov's door ... failure
knocking at ntp.cox.smu.edu's door ... failure
knocking at ntp.adelaide.edu.au's door ... failure
knocking at noc.near.net's door ... failure
knocking at nic.near.net's door ... failure
knocking at molecule.ecn.purdue.edu's door ... failure
knocking at louie.udel.edu's door ... failure
knocking at libra.rice.edu's door ... failure
knocking at lib1.tcd.ie's door ... failure
knocking at lane.cc.ukans.edu's door ... failure
knocking at kuhub.cc.ukans.edu's door ... failure
knocking at jane.jpl.nasa.gov's door ... failure
knocking at heechee.esa.lanl.gov's door ... failure
knocking at harbor.ecn.purdue.edu's door ... failure
knocking at gilbreth.ecn.purdue.edu's door ... failure
knocking at fuzz.psc.edu's door ... failure
knocking at fartein.ifi.uio.no's door ... failure
knocking at esavax.esa.lanl.gov's door ... failure
knocking at delphi.cs.ucla.edu's door ... failure
knocking at constellation.ecn.ou.edu's door ... failure
knocking at clock.tricity.wsu.edu's door ... failure
knocking at clock.psu.edu's door ... failure
knocking at clepsydra.dec.com's door ... failure
knocking at black-ice.cc.vt.edu's door ... failure
knocking at bernina.ethz.ch's door ... failure
knocking at ashe.cs.tcd.ie's door ... failure
knocking at time-A.timefreq.bldrdoc.gov's door … success

So, what time(-stamp) is it now?

I see a lot of failures, a lot of servers are offline. So, to know the timestamp, you'd better buy your own atomic clock to be installed locally (it's 2000 USD by Microsemi), or try and pray that the rdate server on the other side remotely on internet is still alive?


Microsemi, minauture atomic clock.

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Southern Plantation Owner:
Well, i ain't paying 2 grand for some new fangled atomic clock. My servers run on rooster time. Marcus runs a little slow.

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Marcus runs a little slow.

Who/What is Marcus?

Well, i ain't paying 2 grand for some new fangled atomic clock. My servers run on rooster time.

Well, what time does the Cock Crow? What does it happen if the rdate-server (the rooster's alarm) is gone offline ?

The Cock Crow doesn't happen, it doesn't wake up, OMG, and as consequence the whole universe (well, at least the part of the universe located inside my computer room) might collapse, like a business crash, since my users will find my servers, their services, offline @______@

Don't underestimate the importance of being synchronized to a correct time-stamp. it's also a big problem for UNIX, especially because Makefile will complain for all the skews it gets from files. Those skews usually cause troubles for compilers, but also for databases and for backups.

p.s.
is there a better way to get the time-stamp synchronized?

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Or you could use pool.ntp.org

Or you could use an el-cheapo GPS module.

It's like being back in the 90s around here at times.

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MattS-UK:
Or you could use an el-cheapo GPS module.

ups, I had forgotten to say the computer room is located inside a bunker, 12 meters under the ground. The GPS doesn't work there.

But I have a T1 line, optical link, to internet.

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MattS-UK:
Or you could use pool.ntp.org

Umm, I was focused on rdate, the pool.ntp.org project looks interesting! It's a big virtual cluster of timeservers providing reliable easy to use NTP service for millions of clients.

And the pool is being used by millions or tens of millions of systems around the world.

Active Servers:
Africa 30
Asia 281
Europe 2676
North America 913
Oceania 99
South America 42
Global 3775
All Pool Servers 4042

Definitively the solution to my problem. ThkU!

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Marcus my server's name :wink:

weak attempt at off color humor

OK, moving on.

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Qdeathstar:
Marcus my server's name

How could I know it is a server's name ? :smiley:

Here I am on RedQueen's console
The PurpleQueen is her twin sister.
It's a two ways redundant server.

NTP is a protocol designed to synchronize the clocks of computers over a network. NTP version 3 is an internet draft standard, formalized in RFC 1305. NTP version 4 is a significant revision of the NTP standard, and is the current development version, but has not been formalized in an RFC. Simple NTP (SNTP) version 4 is described in RFC 2030.

At the end, I have chosen OpenNTPD, and already configured a client.
The default configuration file (/etc/ntpd.conf) for OpenNTPD looks simple

# Addresses to listen on 
listen on *

# Choose servers, NTP Pool
servers pool.ntp.org

And it works brilliant!

Super thanks again :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

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