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AliGibbs
Asked: 2010-05-11 05:09:47 +0800 CST

Network Time is being set by "something"

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Something is setting (the incorrect) time on our network- though I don't know what it is (since we have approx 40 servers). We run on a windows network, with AD etc. Not sure where to even begin to start looking- as far as I know, we don't run an NTP server in house.

Any advice?

Thanks

windows time ntp

4 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    • Ad serves as NTP like service intern for clients, and the AD PDC emulator is the time source for all AD systems.

    • So, start checking on the AD PDC Emulator - it is the time source on your network.

    • Adjust there. Pray it is forward (time lags) as anything else is nasty in active directory.

    • Adjust on servers after that.

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  2. All members workstations and servers in the domain syncs their time to the machine having the PDC emulator role (usually the first DC in your AD), chances are that the PDC does not have a correct time, you may want to make it sync to an external ntp stratum 2 server matching your zone.

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  3. Yes, I had the same problem. Your DC sets the time for all member servers.

    You need this for Kerberos to work properly, so you should sync to a proper government or university run NTP server, with redundancy.

    See this, or google for how to set time on your DC.

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  4. You need to see what is the offset of the time. If it is a nice round number - i.e. multiples of half-hour or full-hour differences, it could be a combination of two problems: first, your machine is synchronising its time with a remote network server; and second, you have your time-zone information set incorrectly or you have set your hardware time and system time to the same thing.

    You can easily block all off-network NTP synchronisations at the router level by changing the firewall settings. For the second and third, you may need to change your BIOS settings and/or your OS settings.

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