What time server do you use?

[Mike]

On Fri, May 13, 2011 at 11:18 AM, Mike <el.fontanero-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On Fri, May 13, 2011 at 11:02 AM, James Knott <james.knott-bJEeYj9oJeDQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>> marthter wrote:
>>>
>>> According to
>>>
>>> http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/services/inms/time-services/network-time.html
>>>
>>>
>>>   Note: Starting March 1, 2011, the old *TIME *protocol on port
>>>   37(RFC-868) will no longer be offered from the NTP servers below.
>>>   However a new time service for the old *TIME *protocol is now
>>>   offered from a new server, *time4.nrc.ca*. Users are encouraged to
>>>   switch to the NTP protocol described below, for a more accurate time
>>>   service.
>>
>>
>> This talk about time servers brings up a question.  NTP supports using
>> multiple servers to obtain best accuracy.  Does Linux support this?  I can
>> have several NTP servers specified in openSUSE.  I assume the "undisciplined
>> local clock", at the bottom of the list, is used when an external server is
>> not available.
>>
>
> Linux distributions typically use the commonly available ntpd daemon,
> which supports all this and much more...
>
> It uses the time server that it determines is the best reference, and
> disciplines the *kernel's* clock, which is based on your system's
> timer hardware (and ultimately the system's oscillator) as opposed to
> any RTC hardware.
>

And just to be a bit pedantic, ntpd doesn't concurrently use all the
servers it tracks. It keeps detailed statistics on them all, but
selects the best one to use as its sole reference, until one of the
others proves itself better.
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