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Server is randomly chaning local clock

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by shanghai sam

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Don't ask me how, but one of about 15 NT servers is having it's local clock changed randomly and repeatedly. Not in minutes but by hours. Like it's going to another time zone, but the time zone is set in PST where it's supposed to be. Over the last day I've looked at the other servers, and some of them were incorrectly in the Greenwich time zone so I changed them all over. Is that what has been affecting the server? Why does it only affect that one?

3 replies

by shanghai sam

Yes, the other servers can affect the one that is having the time problem. Depending on how the servers are configured, they may be taking the time or synchronizing with another system. I have seen it where only one system was off. The time on theclock was correct, but the time zone was wrong. This caused the other systems to have an incorrect time. It would normally happen once a day. But if one computer were shut down and then re-booted, it tried to pull the time off the other, and, of course, be incorrect. Check two things on ALL servers.
1. All time zones and clocks are manually set to the same time.
2. check all logon scripts. A simple batch file, (if in a start up folder or being run by an AT command) will pull the time from another system and change the clock and zone on itself. An example is...
NET TIME /SET \\servername /Y

My guess is that there is a batch file running on one or more of the systems. OR someone is playing tricks on you and changing things without your knowing.

Check it out.

by sp1906207

Check also if there's some sort of a time synchronization service (like TimeServ from NT Resource Kit) running on this server - it could have got improper time from another location (another NT server or from Internet).

TimeServ can be found in "Services" applet as "Time Service".

by estebandelatorre

USE TIMESERV (FROM THE RESOURCE KIT) IN ORDER TO INDICATE TO YOUR SERVER, WHAT TIME TO FOLLOW, SOME OF YOUR SERVERS MAY BE FOLLOWING THE INCORRECT SERVER.

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