Annotation of doc/build/loncapatimesync.html, revision 1.2
1.1 harris41 1: <HTML>
2: <HEAD>
3: <TITLE>LON-CAPA Time Synchronization</TITLE>
4: </HEAD>
5: <BODY>
6: <H1>LON-CAPA Time Synchronization</H1>
7: <P>
8: Scott Harrison
9: </P>
10: <P>
11: Last updated: 02/07/2001
12: </P>
13: <P>
14: This file describes issues associated with LON-CAPA
15: and time synchronization.
16: </P>
17: <H3>Importance</H3>
18: <P>
19: Since LON-CAPA machines are involved with
20: the submission of homework, quizzes, and
21: exams to the instructor, it is important that
22: the time of the server be kept accurately and precisely.
23: </P>
24: <P>
25: Accuracy involves
26: </P>
1.2 ! harris41 27: <pre>
! 28: I will explain the components of ntp and how they
! 29: interrelate on a LON-CAPA system
! 30:
! 31: There are three relevant components here:
! 32: 1. a correct /etc/ntp/step-tickers,
! 33: 2. a correct /etc/ntp.conf
! 34: 3. enabling xntpd for boot up
! 35:
! 36: Without /etc/ntp.conf, /etc/rc.d/init.d/xntpd won't do anything.
! 37: With /etc/ntp.conf but without /etc/ntp/step-tickers, Gerd is correct
! 38: when he says:
! 39:
! 40: > What I do know is that if the clock in the CMOS is off by too much,the normal
! 41: > ntp will not work. Instead, the clock has to be forced to synch initially,and
! 42: > from then on can be automatically adjusted.
! 43:
! 44: The unix commands for Gerd's manual approach are:
! 45: /etc/rc.d/init.d/xntpd stop
! 46: /usr/sbin/ntpdate ntp.msu.edu (or whatever your ntp server is)
! 47: /etc/rc.d/init.d/xntpd start
! 48:
! 49: To force xntpd to avoid the offset problem, defining
! 50: /etc/ntp/step-tickers does the trick.
! 51:
! 52: With /etc/ntp.conf and /etc/ntp/step-tickers, xntp still may not
! 53: work (depending on whether the last instruction was followed
! 54: for the LON-CAPA installation, see
! 55: http://install.lon-capa.org/docs/3.1/instructions_with_cd.html)
! 56:
! 57: Making sure xntp starts up upon boot time should simply
! 58: be a matter of:
! 59:
! 60: /sbin/chkconfig xntpd on
! 61:
! 62: Finally, the correct settings for /etc/ntp.conf
! 63: and /etc/ntp/step-tickers are:
! 64:
! 65: 1 line with the ip address of your ntp server
! 66:
! 67: For instance:
! 68:
! 69: echo "whistler.sfu.ca" > /etc/ntp/step-tickers
! 70: echo "whistler.sfu.ca" > /etc/ntp.conf
! 71:
! 72: Everyone is currently setting these and other LON-CAPA conf
! 73: files manually after cvs upgrades, because
! 74: there were several parties who were
! 75:
! 76: * doing different things
! 77: * in different ways
! 78: * for different reasons
! 79: * for different institutions
! 80: * for their machine-specific configurations
! 81:
! 82: I was not able to make everyone happy with
! 83: "make configinstall". For the future, we (Guy and I) do think
! 84: we've come up with a new way to do everything
! 85: for everyone for updating configuration files
! 86: as the CVS source repository changes.
! 87:
! 88: -Scott
! 89: </pre>
! 90: </body>
! 91: </html>
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