NTP

[lynchberg]

Hi

 

We are within the YHGFL service and have used their NTP service up until now. After we noticed we had lost sync we have been informed that they have taken down their servers and will be rebuilding, we were then going to use a NTP pool service but have found this to be blocked and have been advised by YHGFL that this will stay the case for now. I know we could stay internal and we have temporary set our distribution switch to act as the primary NTP but would like a reliable provider.

 

What does everybody else do? I would be particularly interested to hear from people using the YHGFL service

 

Thanks

[psydii]

http://isc.sans.edu/diary.html?storyid=17654

 

We use LGfL, their NTP service seems to still be up. Guess they had them better secured.

[lynchberg]

It would seem so I can accept they have had issues but no solution is being proposed currently

[Roberto]

We have our own internal stratum one time server, actually two of them for HA as we have decided that time is a critical service on this site.

 

Galleon will do you an appliance for about a grand to handle this (and its been rock solid for us, 4 years with zero downtime), or there are cheaper solutions out there too.

[win]

I set up my DC to get the time from pool.ntp.org. No problems yet.

[Davit2005]

I set up my DC to get the time from pool.ntp.org. No problems yet.

 

I think the issue here is that the NTP traffic is being blocked by the over protective firewall. We have our PDC pointed to specific external NTP servers and only this traffic is allowed through from these specific servers.

 

With a different LEA We had to wait 3 months to get our Exchange server running, 6 months to get our internal Blackberry server the proper access in a previous employment and then topped it off by waiting 9 months to get another issue sorted out and we were paying £25,000 for the service

Edited February 24, 2014 by Davit2005

[win]

Is it possible to fill in a request form to open up port 123? Then you can use an external source for setting the right time

[ehartley7]

I'm on YHGFL and yes, the time servers disappeared a few weeks ago without warning.

 

I have just been in touch with them and was told "I have asked about the office and it seems that the ntp servers have been turned off. I have inquired as to if this is being restored, and I have been told there are no plans to bring the servers back up."

 

I'm waiting to see what they recommend from here, I seem to think that last time I asked about accessing a external time source I was told I should be using theirs, which now doesn't exist...

[lynchberg]

Our plan was to use the ntp.pool.org but YHGFL have this blocked and seem to have no intentions of opening this up. Being on a full VMware platform currently we have setup a physical DC which we have been considering doing for a while and set this up as our reliable time server. Hopefully this will get us by until Easter and we'll reassess then.

[win]

In that case i think you need to go old skool for now:

 

Dial 123 and listen to Davina McCall giving you the correct time to set your DCs

Edited February 24, 2014 by win

[ehartley7]

Update is as follows.

 

YHGFL plan to restore the NTP servers but there is no timescale on this at the moment. pool.ntp.org has been suggested in the meantime, but does require a firewall change by YHGFL for it to work for each school.

 

Hope that's some help....

[ehartley7]

Apparently the YHGFL NTP servers are up and running again, but they will not work for me using the settings that did work before they were taken out.

 

Is anyone else using YHGFL NTP servers and can confirm how you have configured your DC for it to work?

 

Many thanks

[kearton]

ntp1-wak.yhgfl.net

[ehartley7]

Thanks Kearton,

 

I have attempted to configure this several times in the last 6 months, but continued to have errors in the event log indicating that it was unable to contact the NTP server.

 

YHGFL even did a remote support session and couldn't get it working for me saying it was a DNS issue at my end.

 

However I have now done this again using the server you recommend and following instructions on the following page and have not seen an error for the last two days. The reason for the problem remains a mystery but thanks for prompting me to try again.

 

NTP time service in Windows 2003 - Windows Server 2003 - Windows 2000/NT