I have a RHEL6 server running an Oracle database. When the server was built, NTP wasn't enabled or configured. My task is to do that without impacting the database. After doing some research, I was under the assumption that, when enabling NTP on RHEL6, the time would drift until it was in sync. However, when I did this on my test machine, the system clocked immediately jumped to the NTP time. The time was approximately 2 1/2 minutes off before enabling NTP. When I ran the ntpstat
command, it was unsynchronized for a little while but is now in sync.
So, how do I enable NTP and have it drift into the correct time instead of "brute-forcing" it into sync? Thanks for your help!!
[root@host etc]# service ntpd status
ntpd is stopped
[root@host etc]#
[root@host etc]# ntpdate -q time.mydomain.com
server 1.1.1.1, stratum 2, offset 154.573234, delay 0.02890
2 May 15:47:59 ntpdate[21584]: step time server 1.1.1.1 offset 154.573234 sec
[root@host etc]#
[root@host etc]# service ntpd start
Starting ntpd: [ OK ]
[root@host etc]# ntpdate -q time.mydomain.com
server 1.1.1.1, stratum 2, offset -0.000118, delay 0.02876
2 May 15:50:47 ntpdate[21606]: adjust time server 1.1.1.1 offset -0.000118 sec
[root@host etc]# date
Tue May 2 15:51:01 EDT 2017
[root@host etc]# ntpstat
unsynchronised
polling server every 64 s
[root@host etc]# ntpstat
synchronised to NTP server (1.1.1.1) at stratum 3
time correct to within 80 ms
polling server every 1024 s