freebsd-skq/contrib/ntp/html/quick.htm

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<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>
Quick Start
</TITLE></HEAD><BODY><H3>
Quick Start
</H3>
<img align=left src=pic/panda.gif>FAX test image for SATNET (1979).
<p>The baby panda was scanned at University College London and used
as a FAX test image for a demonstration of the DARPA Atlantic
SATNET Program and the first transatlantic Internet connection in 1978.
The computing system used for that demonstration was called the <A
HREF="http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~mills/database/papers/fuzz.ps">Fuzzball
</A>. As it happened, this was also the first Internet multimedia
presentation and the first to use NTP in regular operation. The image
was widely copied and used for testing purpose throughout much of the
1980s.
<br clear=left>
<H4>Introduction</H4>
<p>This page describes what to expect when the NTP daemon <tt>ntpd</tt>
is started for the first time. The discussion presumes the programs in
this distribution have been compiled and installed as described in the
<a href=build.htm>Building and Installing the Distribution</a> page.
<p>When the daemon is started, whether for the first or subsequent
times, a number of roundtrip samples are required to accumulate reliable
measurements of network path delay and clock offset relative to the
server. Normally, this takes about four minutes, after which the local
clock is synchronized to the server. The daemon behavior at startup
depends on whether a drift file <tt>ntp.drift</tt> exists. This file
contains the latest estimate of local clock frequency error. When the
daemon is started for the first time, it is created after about one hour
of operation and updated once each hour after that. When the daemon is
started and the file does not exist, the daemon enters a special mode
designed to quickly adapt to the particular system clock oscillator time
and frequency error. This takes approximately 15 minutes, after which
the time and frequency are set to nominal values and the daemon enters
normal mode, where the time and frequency are continuously tracked
relative to the server.
<p>As a practical matter, once the local clock has been set, it very
rarely strays more than 128 ms relative to the server, even under
extreme cases of network path congestion and jitter. Sometimes, in
particular when the daemon is first started, the relative clock offset
exceeds 128 ms. In such cases the normal behavior of the daemon is to
set the clock directly, rather than rely on gradual corrections. This
may cause the clock to be set backwards, if the local clock time is more
than 128 s in the future relative to the server. In some applications,
this behavior may be unacceptable. If the <tt>-x</tt> option is included
on the command line that starts the daemon, the clock will never be
stepped and only slew corrections will be used.
<p>The issues should be carefully explored before deciding to use the
<tt>-x</tt> option. The maximum slew rate possible is limited to 500
parts-per-million (PPM) as a consequence of the correctness principles
on which the NTP protocol and algorithm design are based. As a result,
the local clock can take a long time to converge to an acceptable
offset, about 2000 s for each second the clock is outside the acceptable
range. During this interval the local clock will not be consistent with
any other network clock and the system cannot be used for distributed
applications that require correctly synchronized network time.
<p>There may be an occasional outlyer, where an individual measurement
exceeds 128 ms. When the frequency of occurrence of these outlyers is
low, the measurement is discarded and operation continues with the next
one. However, if the outlyers persist for an interval longer than about
15 minutes, the next value is believed and the clock stepped or slewed
as determined by the <tt>-x</tt> option. The usual reason for this
behavior is when a leap second has occurred, but the reference clock
receiver has not synchronized to it. When leap second support is
implemented in the kernel, the kernel implements it as directed by the
NTP daemon. If this happens and the reference clock source
resynchronizes correctly within 15 minutes, the transient misbehavior of
the source is transparent.
<p>It has been observed that, as the result of extreme network
congestion, the roundtrip delays can exceed three seconds and the
synchronization distance, which is equal to one-half the roundtrip delay
plus the error budget terms, can become very large. When the
synchronization distance exceeds one second, the offset measurement is
discarded. If this condition persists for several poll intervals, the
server may be declared unreachable. Sometimes the large jitter results
in large frequency errors which result in straying outside the
acceptable offset range and an eventual step or slew time correction. If
following such a correction the frequency error is so large that the
first sample is outside the acceptable range, the daemon enters the same
state as when the <tt>ntp.drift</tt> file is not present. The intent of
this behavior is to quickly correct the frequency and restore operation
to the normal tracking mode. In the most extreme cases
(<tt>time.ien.it</tt> comes to mind), there may be occasional step/slew
corrections and subsequent frequency corrections. It helps in these
cases to use burst mode when configuring the server.
<hr><a href=index.htm><img align=left src=pic/home.gif></a><address><a
href=mailto:mills@udel.edu> David L. Mills &lt;mills@udel.edu&gt;</a>
</address></a></body></html>