Re: [chrony-users] Isolated time domains

[Miroslav Lichvar <mlichvar@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, Dec 03, 2013 at 12:24:43AM +0000, Chris Dore wrote:
> This client was previously synchronized with the external NTP servers which is why it is reporting that it is in synch with NTP time.  Since the master server is about 3 hours behind NTP time I need this client to say it is about 3 hours ahead of the master server.
> 
> While this example is a bit contrived, I think it illustrates that the chronyd running on the master server is telling the clients the external NTP time when I really want it to tell the clients the local system time.
> 
> Is it possible to configure chronyd to always serve it's local clock, regardless of the state of the external/remote servers?

This issue was discussed here some time ago. Currently, there is no
option in chronyd which would allow serving the raw system time.
It wouldn't be very difficult to implement, but I'm not sure if it
would meet your requirements on the maximum error between the clients.

As Bill wrote in his reply, the clients will not notice the change in
the frequency at the same time and their response may be different, so
their clocks won't be close until they all caught up with the server
slew and then the situation would repeat when the server stops the
correction.

I think a better solution to this problem would be an approach similar
to the Google's NTP leap second smearing. The jump in time is smeared
with a cosine function over very long interval, so that the frequency
observed in the NTP time changes slowly and the clients can stay in
sync during the whole correction.

At this moment, I'm not sure how difficult it would be to implement
in chrony.

-- 
Miroslav Lichvar

-- 
To unsubscribe email chrony-users-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
with "unsubscribe" in the subject.
For help email chrony-users-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
with "help" in the subject.
Trouble?  Email listmaster@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.