Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!sci.ccny.cuny.edu!phri!roy From: roy@phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: Re: timed problems? Keywords: timed Message-ID: <1990May25.141139.14193@phri.nyu.edu> Date: 25 May 90 14:11:39 GMT References: <103@bohra.cpg.oz> Sender: news@phri.nyu.edu (News System) Organization: Public Health Research Institute, New York City Lines: 31 In <103@bohra.cpg.oz> als@bohra.cpg.oz (Anthony Shipman) writes: > I have just set up three machines to run with synchronised clocks using > /etc/timed [...] Does anyone have any experience they would like to impart? Having used to run timed, I would say the best advice is to chuck it and use ntpd instead. If you are connected to the Internet, you can keep your clock within a fraction of a second of The Right Time, and if you're not, at least you can keep all of your machines on an ethernet within a very small fraction of a second of each other. The real problem with timed is that you have no control over who ends up being the master clock. On our net, it usually ended up being an Iris in another building 4 blocks away that I had no control over, and which generally had its clock set to some totally random time. I eventually got pissed at having people come into my office complaining that their $12 quartz-and-plastic Casio wristwatch kept better time than their $5000 workstation. Actually, before we even ran timed, I used to just have each of our diskless workstations run rdate when they booted. This at least started them all out with a clock that was within about a second of each other, which doesn't approach the precision you get with ntpd, but may be good enough for most purposes. Most of our machines are 4-Meg diskless workstations, on which memory is a critical resource. I havn't yet decided if running ntpd on all of them is worth it, but the choice is between ntpd and rdate-on-bootup-then-freerun, not between ntdp and timed. -- Roy Smith, Public Health Research Institute 455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016 roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu -OR- {att,cmcl2,rutgers,hombre}!phri!roy "Arcane? Did you say arcane? It wouldn't be Unix if it wasn't arcane!"