NTP sync on Windows Server 2008

How would you make a Windows Server 2008 server sync with free ntp servers on the Internet?

What free programs would do this?
How do you configure them? (I need it to sync every 30sec as the server's clock drifts very very fast ~1sec per 40min)

Update: See follow up question

Jonathan

Posted 2011-07-08T13:10:23.817

Reputation: 3 371

Answers

You do not need any outside software, just use this document to show you how to configure it natively:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/816042 (read the section "Configuring the Windows Time service to use an external time source")

KCotreau

Posted 2011-07-08T13:10:23.817

Reputation: 24 985

As a note, if you are doing this on a Microsoft domain, a relatively easy way to synchronize the clients is to add this line to your logon batch file: net time \servername /set /yes . Of course, if they never logon, it will not work. You can also set clients to use it in group policy. – KCotreau – 2011-07-08T13:17:40.160

3That's a bit out of date. net time has been deprecated for over 5 years now. The questioner did ask for NTP synchronization, moreover. net time uses an RPC protocol, not NTP. The way to do this with NTP on a domain member workstation is w32tm /resync and have the domain member run the w32time service, which (being a service and not a logon script) doesn't need logon events in order to work. – JdeBP – 2011-07-08T14:58:33.817

I just said "easy", not best. – KCotreau – 2011-07-08T15:09:05.273

Notice to also set the UpdateInterval under the Config section, as explained in the comment to the answer in this question: http://superuser.com/questions/308163/ntp-sync-doesnt

– Jonathan – 2011-07-08T16:00:27.583

@Jonathan Thanks for marking the answers. I appreciate it. – KCotreau – 2011-07-08T16:02:15.820

More appropriate source from MS:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc731191%28v=WS.10%29.aspx

"current"/specific to Server 2008 & Server 2008 R2

To configure the Windows Time service on the first forest root domain controller
Log on to the first domain controller that you deployed.
At a command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:
w32tm /stripchart /computer:<target> /samples:<number> /dataonly
Open User Datagram Protocol (UDP) port 123 for outgoing traffic, if needed.

Open UDP port 123 for incoming NTP traffic.

You can use a different port, if you prefer.
Type the following command to configure the PDC emulator, and then press ENTER:
w32tm /config /manualpeerlist:<peers> /syncfromflags:manual /reliable:yes /update

user178752

Posted 2011-07-08T13:10:23.817

Reputation: 1