7.1 Monitoring Time Synchronization

The quality of time synchronization can be monitored. It is based on the accuracy of the time provided by the time provider to the time consumer.

The time quality variables like offset, jitter, and precision can be measured and logged for online or offline analysis in the text mode for any NTPv3-compliant operating system.

7.1.1 Using NTPQ to Monitor Time Quality

The NTPQ utility can be used to monitor time quality variables consists of the following commands:

Table 7-1 NTPQ commands

Command

Description

peers

Obtains a list of in-spec peers of the server, along with a summary of each peer’s state. Summary information includes the remote peer's address, reference ID (0.0.0.0 if the refID is unknown), stratum, type (local, unicast, multicast, or broadcast); when the last packet was received; the polling interval (in seconds); the leachability register (in octal); and the current estimated delay, offset, and dispersion of the peer (all in seconds).

associations

Obtains and displays a list of association identifiers and peer statuses for in-spec peers of the server being queried. This command can also be used to check if the server is synchronized or not (If the Status column contains sys.peer, it means that server is synchronized).

rv associate

Obtains various time parameters from the server and displays them. The most important parameter is filter offset, which gives the last eight time offsets of the host server with the reference server.

rvi index

Obtains various time parameters from the server and displays them. The sequencing index can be used instead of assocID (as in the rv command). This makes it easy to monitor and remember the association ID every time.

For more information about the commands, see Section 6.2, NTPQ.

The following figure displays the output of the NTPQ peers, association, and rv assocID commands.

Figure 7-1 Output of NTPQ Peers, Association, and RV AssocID Commands

The following figure displays the output of the NTPQ rvi index command.

Figure 7-2 Output of the NTPQ RVI Index Command

7.1.2 Using the Health Monitor to Monitor NTP

You can monitor NTP remotely by using Novell® Remote Manager. You can monitor all the servers that are authenticated to the Novell eDirectory™ 8.7.3 or later tree. Select the server you want to monitor. The Peer, Associations, rv, and rvi details are displayed. These details are similar to output that the NTPQ peers, NTPQ associations and NTPQ read variables commands (rv and rvi) give. For more information, see Table 7-1.

Figure 7-3 Monitoring NTP by Using Novell® Remote Manager..