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Network Time Protocol (NTP)
General Information
Time is important on any system for automated jobs, log files, security, etc. This quick how to will get NTP up and running on a Linux server.
Checklist
- Distro: Enterprise Linux 6
Install NTP Packages
The packages:
- ntp - the ntp daemon service
- ntpdate - a utility to run ad-hoc for time setting
- ntp-doc - ntp documentation
yum install ntp ntpdate ntp-doc
NTP Service On Boot
chkconfig ntpd on
Ad-hoc Initial Time Sync
ntpdate pool.ntp.org
Edit /etc/ntp.conf and Setup Time Servers
Visit http://www.pool.ntp.org/zone/north-america and verify the current ntp servers.
They most likely are still (2015-01-07):
- server 0.north-america.pool.ntp.org
- server 1.north-america.pool.ntp.org
- server 2.north-america.pool.ntp.org
- server 3.north-america.pool.ntp.org
Add the above server lines to /etc/ntp.conf in place of the default servers.
vim /etc/ntp.conf
Start NTP Service
Finally, start the NTP daemon service.
/etc/init.d/ntpd start