[ILUG] Time Sync

[Stephen Shirley]

Gurpreet Kaur wrote:

> 1. We have a FTX machine which does not support NTP and we want to synchronize to some other
> machine.We want to use rdate for time synchronization. But everytime we issue a command like
> 
> rdate <server-name>
> 
> It gives us the error
> 
> rdate: connect: Connection refused
> 
> We have cheched out /etc/inetd.conf file 
> Time command have been commented out for tcp on both sides(client as well as server). We have entry of hosts
> in the /etc/hosts file.

RFC868 states that the time service may be run over either tcp or udp. 
I'm guessing in this case, rdate is attempting to use udp, hence the 
error. Try enabling the udp version of the time service in inetd.conf. 
Also, check the /etc/hosts.allow and /etc/hosts.deny files, it's 
possible the host you're trying it from is being denied due to them.

> 2. If client machine get ahead of time, how will rdate behaves?

Afaik, rdate by default will just set the client's time to that of the 
server, regardless of whether it is behind or ahead. If you want to do 
it in a smooth fashion instead of a (possibly large) jump, try the -a 
flag to rdate.

Steve