Managing Accurate Date and Time

Avi Alkalay




Linux, Open Standards consultant :: Senior IT and Software Architect
IBM Linux Impact Team :: ibm.com/linux

Brad Knowles - Suggestion to use pool.ntp.org and NTP's stratum 2 public time servers

Kent Borg - Suggestion to use ntpq instead of ntpdc

Yura Moron - Good explanations on ntpq and ntpdc info

Takeo Nakano - Japanese translation

1.0.5 :: 2003-07-05

Revision History
Revision 1.0.5 05 Jul 2003 Revised by: avi
Changed public time servers list URL. Added pool.ntp.org.
Revision 1.0.4 21 Dec 2002 Revised by: avi
Added japanese translation link and credits.
Revision 1.0.3 24 Aug 2002 Revised by: avi
Fixed wrong screen and programlisting widths.
Revision 1.0.2 04 Aug 2002 Revised by: avi
Link to public time servers page.
Revision 1.0.1 07 May 2002 Revised by: avi
Final XML conversion. Files reorganization.
Revision 1.0 28 Apr 2002 Revised by: avi
Finalized image.
Revision 0.8 27 Apr 2002 Revised by: avi
Switched from ntpdc example to ntpq, based on contributions.
Revision 0.8.1 20 Apr 2002 Revised by: avi
Improved graphic. Links to other doc locations.
Revision 0.8 14 Apr 2002 Revised by: avi
Beter tunning of NTP graphic.
Revision 0.76 13 Apr 2002 Revised by: avi
Inclusion of architecture graphic.
Revision 0.75 10 Apr 2002 Revised by: avi
Spell checked. Using DocBook XSLT 1.50.
Revision 0.65 31 Mar 2002 Revised by: avi
Upgraded to XML 4.1.2 DocBook format
Revision 0.6 29 Mar 2002 Revised by: avi
Finished timezone mechanism on Linux. Created appendix. Now only drawings are needed.
Revision 0.4 24 Mar 2002 Revised by: avi
All skeleton defined. All command examples written.
Revision 0.2 19 Mar 2002 Revised by: avi
First DocBook version

Table of Contents
1. Computer Global Date and Time Concept
2. What are Time Zones?
2.1. Daylight Savings Time
2.2. Time Zones Examples
2.3. Time Zone Mechanism on Linux
3. The Correct Settings for Your Linux Box
3.1. Setting Time Zone
3.2. Setting the Hardware Clock
4. Accurate Global Time Synchronization
4.1. NTP : The Network Time Protocol
4.2. Building a Simple Time Synchronization Architecture
4.3. NTP Configurations
4.4. Watching Your Box Synchronizing
4.5. Configure to Automatically Run NTP at Boot
A. About this Document

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