On ubuntu server my usual solution is just to install the ntp
package and call it a day. This installs all the binaries I need and has ntpd start at boot time.
Right now I'm working on a server configuration that will be replicated across many servers, and in general needs to be as lean as possible. I'm noticing that in the default configuration for ntpd, requests can be made to the server to ask it what time it is. I don't need this. I only need the server's own time to be kept up to date.