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W2K Server to use external time server

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by kingofthenerds 1 view

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I have a windows 2000 Server which is a primary domain controller for my network. Currently all pcs connected to the server get the time that the server has.
Unfortunately the server is not setup to sychronise to any external server.
Can someone please help me to setup my W2K Server to connect to an external time server so that its clock is never wrong.
I am in NSW Australia, so Sydney would be the correct time for me. If someone can help setup my W2K server to connect to a syndey time server i would award all points.

18 replies

by cg it

theres a whole downloadable paper on window time service. http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/howitworks/security/wintimeserv.asp

the above link I found to be the best white paper on configuring windows time service.

heres a web site to get addresses os time servers
http://www.boulder.nist.gov/timefreq/service/its.htm

Configuring your server to obtain time from an external time source is pretty easy.

from the command line, you have to stop the service net stop w32time net time \\computername /domain/setsntp:

then restart the time service net start w32time

by cg it

note its a 3 step operation
you stop the time service net stop w32time
you configure an authoritative time server nte time \\computer name /setsntp: [you can use either the time server name or its actual address]
you restart the time service net start w32time

failure or warning event logs will show up in the event viewer if a time service server is unavailable.

by kingofthenerds

Poster rated this answer.
How can i check to see if this is working? I know that the net time query command shows that the server has been set, but my time is not updating.

I change the time on my server and it doesn't change back. How do i make it synchronise with the time server.

Also How do i check the time servers time to see if my time is in sync?

So basically i have done exactly what you have said but it is not updating.

by bfilmfan

Open a command box and run these commands:

net stop w32time

net start w32time

net time /querysntp
(This one is to make sure that there really is not external SNTP server set)

In the event that one wasn't set, let's set it now by using the command:

net time /setsntp: (nearest SNTP Time Server To Your location)

ACT ntp.can.connect.com.au
NSW ntp.syd.connect.com.au
Queensland ntp.bri.connect.com.au
South Australia ntp.ade.connect.com.au
Victoria ntp.mel.connect.com.au
Western Australia ntp.per.connect.com.au

So for Queensland the command would be:

net time /setsntp:ntp.bri.connect.com.au
net stop w32time
net start w32time

You should be good to go then.

Enjoy!

by kingofthenerds

How can i check to see if this is working? I know that the net time query command shows that the server has been set, but my time is not updating.

I change the time on my server and it doesn't change back. How do i make it synchronise with the time server.

Also How do i check the time servers time to see if my time is in sync?

So basically i have done exactly what you have said but it is not updating.

by kingofthenerds

I will explain my setup this far:

Set time server up in DHCP Server options. Pointed it towards ntp.syd.connect.com.au

I also changed some registry settings under W32Time>Parameters
LocalNTP - 1
NTPServer - ntp.syd.connect.com.au
Period - SpecialSkew
MSSkewPerDay - 936.0000
ReliableTimeSource - 1
Type - NTP
Adj - 156248

Some of these i set, some were already there.

This is my setup. I have recieved the following errors in event log under system

Event ID - 14 - Attempt to set time which differs by more than 12 hours aborted

Event ID - 49 - An unexpected error occured while trying to start the server. The port may already be in use.

Please Help

by kingofthenerds

Also i did the following command in dos to get an idea where the process is failing, but i don't have a clue what this means, any ideas:

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator.SHEAHAN>w32tm -once -test -v
W32Time: BEGIN:InitAdjIncr
W32Time: Adj 156250 , Incr 156250 fAdjust 0
W32Time: END:Line 2503
W32Time: BEGIN:TsUpTheThread
W32Time: END Line 1407
W32Time: TimeMMInit()
W32Time: Kernel timer : using default maximum resolution
W32Time: MaximumTime = 156250
W32Time: CurrentTime = 9766
W32Time: Timer calibrated, looped 1 times
W32Time: BEGIN:InitTmCfg
W32Time: END:Line 807
W32Time: BEGIN:InitTmCli
W32Time: END:Line 2596
W32Time: BEGIN:InitTmData
W32Time: END:Line 2618
W32Time: AvoidTimeSyncOnWan 0
W32Time: ntpserver - ntp.syd.connect.com.au
W32Time: BEGIN:CMOSSynchSet
W32Time: Setting adjustment 156250 - Bool 0
W32Time: BEGIN:SetTSTimeRes
W32Time: END:Line 1295
W32Time: END:Line 864
W32Time: BEGIN:InitializeDC
W32Time: BEGIN:GetRole
W32Time: Role is 'PDC'
W32Time: END Line 672
W32Time: BEGIN:FetchParentDomainName
W32Time: NetLogonGetTimeServiceParentDomain() returned 54b with ptr 0
W32Time: END:Line 782
W32Time: END:Line 704
W32Time: Server: Binding to 1 NIC.
W32Time: bind failed: 0x80072740
W32Time: Logging event 0xC0000031. 15 min until this event is allowed again.
W32Time: 0xC0000031 reported to System Log in Event Viewer
W32Time: BEGIN:FinishCleanup
W32Time: BEGIN:TsUpTheThread
W32Time: END Line 1407
W32Time: BEGIN:UnInitializeDC
W32Time: Ptrs 0 - 0
W32Time: END:Line 727
W32Time: Time service stopped.
W32Time: END:Line 407

by kingofthenerds

OK,

So what i have found out is when i was trying to synchonise using the dos commands it was not binding to my NIC. I found out this is because the port 123 is already in use by w32time.

So i typed in net stop w32time and tried the dos commands again and it syncronised to the correct time.

My question is this, why do i have to turn the W32time off for it to work, will it continue to sync even with w32time off and what effect will this have on the network?

by bfilmfan

This command has to be run on the PDC emulator for the Active Directory forest and not from a child domain or other domain controller in the root forest domain.

Were you setting it on the PDC Emulator for the forest? If not, this would explain why it didn't work.

by cg it

Time service is installed and runs automatically by default for W2k/XP and and W2k W2003 servers. This is because time syncing between computers on a network is a necessary component of networking.

To change the default installation of Windows Time, you must first stop the time service. Set the time service to point to an authoritative time server, then restart the service. If you try to change time service to another time server without stopping the service, the changes will not take effect.

Bottom line is that w32time runs as a service and by default is started when the computer starts. Like any service, to change it you must first stop the service, make the change then restart the service for the changes to take effect.

by cg it

to check, I usually visit this link http://nist.time.gov/ and click on the area I'm in. It displays the current time for the time zone I'm in. I then look at the time I have in the sys tray. Most of the time I'm off by 30 seconds. If I'm off by 5 minutes, I check the event logs to see if there is a problem showing up. My external firewall sometimes drops inbound time server packets for some reason. Haven't figured out why. Sometime the time server doesn't respond due to heavy traffic. NIST recommends that you find a secondary time service to use as the primary ones get heavy traffic [more and more are syncing with them with the automatic time service built into Windows XP that syncs with either microsofts time server or NIST.

by cg it

What I've done is configure a GC DC on my network as an authoritative time service for clients. I then set that GC DC to get its time from NIST. If they get real busy and I've got a bunch of waring events, I'll switch external time servers.

If your comuters on your LAN are off by a significant amount of time, you have adjusted that time and they go back to being off by a significant amount, you might have a server on the LAN that is authoritative for the LAN and its time is off and not configured to obtain correct time from an external authoritative time server or someone did not configure the time service correctly.

by cg it

What I've done is configure a GC DC on my network as an authoritative time service for clients. I then set that GC DC to get its time from NIST. If they get real busy and I've got a bunch of waring events, I'll switch external time servers.

If your comuters on your LAN are off by a significant amount of time, you have adjusted that time and they go back to being off by a significant amount, you might have a server on the LAN that is authoritative for the LAN and its time is off and not configured to obtain correct time from an external authoritative time server or someone did not configure the time service correctly.

by cg it

remember, you have to pick a time server that is in you time zone. If you pick a GMT time server to sync with, your gonna get GMT time.

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