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It appears some computers in our computer lab have clocks running about 3-4 minutes fast.

As of right now, when we join a computer to the domain, it sets the clock based on our server's Domain Controller clock (Windows Server 2008 R2).

How can we have our server sync its time up with an external server that we are not joined to?

I'm not very network/server-savvy, but apparently the Windows Domain Group Policy will not allow this to be changed by default - so how can I override that setting so that our server can set its clock to sync with an external server?

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  • Could you clarify the question - there is a contradiction between "Synchronise a Non-Domain Server to a Domain Controller's Clock " and "How can we have this server regularly synchronize itself with an external non-domain time server?"
    – Sergei
    Dec 27, 2011 at 19:12
  • We have a server in our building that our computers are joined to. But there is a time server on our campus that we want to automatically sync up to instead of basing its clock on the one within the Domain Controller.
    – Aaron
    Dec 27, 2011 at 19:15
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    Why not sync the domain controller to sync to the dependable clock, instead? If your DC and joined systems do not have synced clocks, they will no longer be able to authenticate.
    – Shane Madden
    Dec 27, 2011 at 19:27
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    When a computer is connected to a domain, it is much more important that its time agrees with the time on the domain controller than it is that the time is "correct". Therefore, whenever this situation arises the correct procedure is always to sync the DC with the time server and leave the domain members as they are.
    – Rob Moir
    Dec 27, 2011 at 20:19
  • Talk to your system administrator, who should already know how to do this.
    – John Gardeniers
    Dec 27, 2011 at 20:35

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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I would recommend against doing anything where you would be overriding the time settings for your local domain joined systems.

What you should be able to do is change the time server set on the domain controller holding the PDC emulator role to point to your on campus clock. That should result in all the computers on your domain remaining correct relative to that system.

There are some horrible things that will happen if the difference between your domain controllers and any domain joined systems get too large. This is the safest route to go, imho.

EDIT - per your request this should do what you want. Execute on your PDC emulator. 

w32tm /config /manualpeerlist:<you.rip.add.res> /syncfromflags:MANUAL
w32tm /config /update

The IP address listed should be that of your campus time server.

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  • I've been trying to do searches on instructions for this, seeing as I'm very inexperienced in this area. Where do I start?
    – Aaron
    Dec 27, 2011 at 19:24
  • @Aaron Configure NTP settings in group policy (Computer -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Windows Time Service), in the Default Domain Controllers policy.
    – Shane Madden
    Dec 27, 2011 at 19:29
  • From Remote Desktop Connection, I have loaded up the command prompt. I'm currently on C:\User\user Do I need to cd to something else before running these w32tm commands?
    – Aaron
    Dec 27, 2011 at 20:23
  • You shouldn't need to. The account that you execute this under needs to have domain admin rights. The commands needs to execute from an elevated command prompt as well.
    – Tim Brigham
    Dec 27, 2011 at 20:32
  • +1 for this answer, having your domain computers using different timeservers is asking for trouble.
    – Handyman5
    Dec 28, 2011 at 0:25

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