- Network Time Protocol, This will keep you system date with exact match to actual date.
Install and Configure
- Type date to see current date and time
date
- Install NTP
aptitude install ntp aptitude install ntpdate
- Done.
Type ntpq -p to see servers you are syncing with.
Type date again to see if the time changed. You time should be synced in a next minute.
- Done.
Troubleshooting
If you run ntpq -p and you get
No association ID's returned
- Run
dpkg-reconfigure ntp
- And then again:
ntpq -p remote refid st t when poll reach delay offset jitter ============================================================================== ntp.pbx.org xx.xxx.xxx.xxx 2 u - 64 1 33.763 1799619 1.054 xray.metadom.co xx.xxx.xxx.xxx 2 u 1 64 1 40.367 1799619 0.001 hydrogen.cert.u xx.xxx.xxx.xxx 2 u - 64 1 64.740 1799619 0.001 mirror .INIT. 16 u - 64 0 0.000 0.000 0.001
Add your time server
- [Optional] If you would like to add a server that is closer to you and you know its address. You could type:
/etc/init.d/ntp-server stop ntpdate clock.fmt.he.net ntpdate ntp1.tummy.com /etc/init.d/ntp-server start
Using The Cron
To configure the system to synchronize the clock with an Internet Time Server every morning, add the following entry to the /etc/crontab configuration file:
#m h dom mon dow user command 57 5 * * * root /usr/sbin/ntpdate-debian > /dev/null
Public Internet Time Servers
pool.ntp.org - This points to a random worldwide time server.
europe.pool.ntp.org - This points to a random European time server.
uk.pool.ntp.org - This points to a random United Kingdom based time server.