Force systemd timesyncd to sync time with NTP server immediately

Question

I've configured systemd timesyncd to get it's time from a NTP server:

/etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf > NTP=ca.pool.ntp.org
systemctl restart systemd-timesyncd.service 
timedatectl set-ntp true

The status is the following:

$ timedatectl status
...
Network time on: yes
NTP synchronized: no

As the output implies, the time is not synced, yet. Can someone please help me out with the following questions?

How long will it take for timesyncd to sync with the NTP? At what intervals does it do that, where can I check and alter them?
In urgent cases: Can I only set the time manually or can I force timesyncd to sync immediately with the NTP server?

John Mee · Answer 1 · 2021-10-08T06:01:46.410

Without installing any more packages... Turn NTP off, manually set the time to be close enough, turn NTP back on:

Set NTP Service inactive

$ timedatectl set-ntp false

Set the time manually

Get the approximate LOCAL time from the wall clock, your phone, the Internet. It doesn't need to be perfect because we'll turn ntp back on in a moment...

$ sudo timedatectl set-time "2019-06-22 13:41:00"

Set NTP service active

$ sudo timedatectl set-ntp true

Wait.

Wait a few minutes. If the response in timedatectl does not change then you have networking issues.

$ timedatectl
               Local time: Sat 2019-06-22 13:49:53 AEST
           Universal time: Sat 2019-06-22 03:49:53 UTC
                 RTC time: Sat 2019-06-22 03:49:54
                Time zone: Australia/Sydney (AEST, +1000)
System clock synchronized: no
              NTP service: active
          RTC in local TZ: no

The "System clock synchronized: no" will turn to "yes" when it has adjusted enough to be considered 'in sync'. Something like:

$ timedatectl 
               Local time: Wed 2020-07-22 09:50:32 AEST  
           Universal time: Tue 2020-07-21 23:50:32 UTC   
                 RTC time: Tue 2020-07-21 23:50:32       
                Time zone: Australia/Sydney (AEST, +1000)
System clock synchronized: yes                           
              NTP service: active                        
          RTC in local TZ: no

and

$ timedatectl timesync-status
       Server: 91.189.91.157 (ntp.ubuntu.com)  
Poll interval: 1min 4s (min: 32s; max 34min 8s)
         Leap: normal                          
      Version: 4                               
      Stratum: 2                               
    Reference: 8CCBCC4D                        
    Precision: 1us (-24)                       
Root distance: 64.781ms (max: 5s)              
       Offset: -88.040ms                       
        Delay: 754.084ms                       
       Jitter: 78.200ms                        
  Packet count: 8                               
     Frequency: -187.812ppm

Trouble shooting

Who are you asking for the time?

$ cat /etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf
[Time]
NTP=pool.ntp.org

I expect this common pool is best, but some distributions might have their own, or a regional one or you might just have something outdated; that's ok, just be sure it exists and serves ntp. If there is one close that you can reach, like a corporate time server which is inside the firewall, you can set it here, or set a fallback server. See the docs for more.

How is the synchronization progressing?

$ timedatectl timesync-status
       Server: 13.210.208.89 (au.pool.ntp.org)
Poll interval: 8min 32s (min: 32s; max 34min 8s)
 Packet count: 0

This sync is going badly: it started at 30 secs, but has blown out to waiting over 8 minutes between polls. The packet count is an incoming count; ie: there have been zero responses. See above for an example of a healthy one. The poll interval adjusts automagically relative to how badly your clock drifts.

Are there any error messages?

Check the syslog for clues to what the problem might be.

$ journalctl --unit=systemd-timesyncd.service
Jun 22 14:13:09 meebox systemd-timesyncd[8333]: Timed out waiting for reply from 103.214.220.220:123 (au.pool.ntp.org).

In this example, the outgoing packets were not getting any reply because the ntp packets were being blocked by a corporate firewall.

Installing another time-sync service was also my first idea, but that's only a workaround. I was looking for a real fix. That's you answer. It works. Thank you :-) — Ingo, Mar 26 '20 at 12:23
"timedatectl timesync-status" always times out, any idea how to troubleshoot? My configs seem all to use time.cloudflare.com — IceFire, Feb 27 '21 at 08:02
@IceFire Timeouts mean you are not receiving data packets: either the service is down, or something is blocking the return packets. Typically that 'something' is a firewall which does not pass UDP packets on port 123. — John Mee, Jul 02 '21 at 01:55
In my case, jitter was several minutes out, but was resolved as simply as `sudo timedatectl set-ntp false; sudo timedatectl set-ntp true`. That was enough to kick timesyncd into action :-) — Ralph Bolton, Jan 25 '22 at 12:44

John Mahowald · Accepted Answer · 2021-10-01T17:33:22.017

To use an actual NTP implementation, you need to install and configure one, chrony or maybe ntpd. Do so if you require any monitoring of time performance. I will assume chrony.

Add iburst to your pool or server lines in your config to speed up the initial few packets. It still may take a couple minutes to stabilize, be patient.

While editing chrony.conf, review when steps are allowed. For example, makestep 1.0 3 means in the first 3 updates after chronyd is started, an offset greater than 1 second sets the clock immediately. Going back in time is bad for some applications, so large steps often are not allowed once a system is running.

On the command line, every variable can be queried.

chronyc tracking will show the current offset. Have an idea of what your requirements are, one second accuracy can easily tolerate tens of milliseconds offset.

chronyc makestep with no arguments will make the current adjustment immediately. Not necessary usually, there is a corresponding config file directive, and chrony will steadily discipline the clock by itself. makestep on the CLI is for fixing NTP interactively when you don't want to restart chronyd.

timesyncd is an SNTP client that can set the time, but not discipline it gradually and continuously, nor filter remote NTP server based on quality. (It also cannot talk to time hardware or PTP, only NTP protocol.) A little better than repeated ntpdate, by which I mean not very good clock. Personally, I replace it on most servers.

About the only way to set the time with timesyncd is manually: timedatectl set-time "2019-01-15 00:40:16". It does not have robust means to discipline and monitor the clock. Basic NTP stats via timedatectl timesync-status are a relatively new thing, I don't think that option is available in Red Hat 7 or Ubuntu 18.04.

systemd defines "syncronized" to be if NTP was ever used to tell Linux to adjust the clock. Specifically, if kernel discipline call adjtimex() returned without error, and not the initial state. See the source code, systemd/src/basic/time-util.c.

Thanks for your answer, John. So in fact I can disable systemd-timesyncd and use chrony only? I’m not quite sure I understand why systemd has a NTP option and is called timeSYNCd if it is not able to sync the time actually? “systemd defines "syncronized" to be if the NTP kernel discipline call adjtimex() returned without error, and not the initial state” - this is not very clear to me. — manifestor, Jan 15 '19 at 09:26
@chevallier systemd-timesyncd is very simple, and it's good enough for the most common cases, e.g. a server with a real time clock which is expected to be running and on the network 24x7. Yours is not a common case, so you should probably not use it. chrony is much better at dealing with interruptions of network connectivity and being shut down for extended periods (e.g. a laptop) or not having a RTC at all (e.g. embedded devices). — Michael Hampton, Jan 15 '19 at 15:46
timesyncd is a SNTP client, so it sets the time without disciplining it properly. Which is fine for coarse accuracy requirements. If you want to measure time performance, or wait until synced, use a full NTP like chrony or ntpd. — John Mahowald, Jan 15 '19 at 16:48
Should I run `chronyc makestep` every 15 minutes in the background? — alper, Oct 01 '21 at 16:57
No, do not run `chronyc makestep` regularly, it is for interactive use. Configure `makestep` in chrony.conf if regular steps are desired. — John Mahowald, Oct 01 '21 at 17:15

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 09 '22 at 13:41

Another troubleshooting for me was looking at

journalctl --unit=systemd-timesyncd.service

jun 09 10:14:14 srvSRVsrv systemd-timesyncd[xxxxx]: Server has too large root distance. Disconnecting.

So i edited vi /etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf

and uncomment and set:

RootDistanceMaxSec=30

and this solved my problem after a restart of the service timedatectl

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 12 '21 at 09:15

Just as a side note for people struggling with this issue, sometimes the synchronization won't work anyway on containerized systems (e.g. OpenVZ) if the host machine doesn't give proper rights.

The systemd-timesyncd service won't start on containerized systems ; the service file contains the following directive:

ConditionVirtualization=!container

Trying to comment that and restarting the service might work but unless the host machine has given the right to the containerized one, you might have such error in the systemctl status systemd-timesyncd output:

Aug 11 16:01:40 your-machine systemd-timesyncd[4736]: Failed to call clock_adjtime(): Operation not permitted

Most people should avoid OpenVZ anyway. – Michael Hampton Aug 12 '21 at 11:50 — Michael Hampton, Aug 12 '21 at 11:50