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I know how to set an authoritative time server in Server 2008 R2. That's not what this question is. I want to know how I can change the time on a network where the PDC (and therefore everything) is a month out of date?

I know that a 5 minute difference in time between clients and the domain prevents logons, so just changing the time on the PDC will break everything.

What is the best way to fix this?

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Please avoid the term PDC discussing post NT Domain Controllers. Your PDC is a normal Domain Controller with the PDC Emulator FSMO role. It's a little thing, but you don't have a PDC on your network. – Dan Sep 5 '12 at 9:13
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Sure, I know that, but when you are talking about time servers then it is important to mention the server with the PDC role. – Kieran Walsh Sep 5 '12 at 9:16

1 Answer

up vote 3 down vote

As a high level overview my approach would be to try and do the following:

  1. Ensure that NTP is functioning correctly on your domain and make sure you know which server(s) control the time.

  2. Ensure that all of your clients and servers are actually using NTP

  3. On your clients, reduce the MaxPollInterval and increase MaxPosPhaseCorrection. (This may help: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc773263(WS.10).aspx)

  4. Make the change, allow everything to synchronise

  5. Reverse the client changes

  6. Now, because you did all of the above in a lab, try it in real life ;)

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