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    NTP time sync issue

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • D
      David_W
      last edited by

      @pfcode:

      @David_W:

      delete the ntp.drift file

      you meant: ntpd.drift ?  which I deleted.

      That is the file I meant. I've edited the earlier post accordingly.

      As I thought, your system had chosen TSC (well TSC-low, though the difference is not material here) as its timecounter. If you repeat that command having made the change I suggested to /boot/loader.conf.local, you should find the quality figure after HPET is now 5000 and that kern.timecounter.hardware is now HPET. It will be interesting to see whether that proves to have lower jitter (clk_jitter) and at least as good short-term stability (clk_wander) as TSC.

      It may take 24 hours for things to settle down as ntpd had no drift file value to start from.

      It is worth turning on pfSense's ntp RRD graphs in Services -> NTP, though I would strongly recommend you apply the patch in https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/4423 first.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • H
        Harvy66
        last edited by

        The offset spikes are correlated with changing system load.

        time2.google.com seems to be going to crap.

        $ ntpq -c 'rl' -wp
associd=0 status=0615 leap_none, sync_ntp, 1 event, clock_sync,
version="ntpd 4.2.8p4@1.3265-o Mon Oct 26 14:28:17 UTC 2015 (1)",
processor="amd64", system="FreeBSD/10.1-RELEASE-p24", leap=00, stratum=3,
precision=-22, rootdelay=31.673, rootdisp=42.253, refid=216.239.38.15,
reftime=da2c4aef.ab39b7b0  Mon, Dec 28 2015 17:57:35.668,
clock=da2c5259.63466f54  Mon, Dec 28 2015 18:29:13.387, peer=10249, tc=9,
mintc=3, offset=0.429836, frequency=-25.102, sys_jitter=0.149028,
clk_jitter=0.241, clk_wander=0.005
     remote           refid      st t when poll reach   delay   offset  jitter
==============================================================================
+ra.steadfastdns.net
                 216.86.146.46    2 u  140  512  377   14.474    0.305   0.356
+rb.steadfastdns.net
                 216.86.146.46    2 u  254  512  377   14.848    0.267   0.442
-dns1.steadfast.net
                 216.86.146.46    2 u  299  512  377   15.048    0.428   0.346
+time1.google.com
                 120.249.107.194  2 u  290  512  377   24.103    0.586   0.206
-time2.google.com
                 217.167.3.118    2 u  527  512  377   34.978   -2.121   2.197
+time3.google.com
                 46.254.142.6     2 u  234  512  377   37.441    0.580   0.462
*time4.google.com
                 112.106.149.195  2 u  327  512  377   24.257    0.455   0.290

        NTP.png_thumb
        NTP.png

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • P
          pfcode
          last edited by

          @David_W:

          If you repeat that command having made the change I suggested to /boot/loader.conf.local, you should find the quality figure after HPET is now 5000 and that kern.timecounter.hardware is now HPET.

          It seemed no change, same as before, I did the reboot:

          
[2.2.6-RELEASE][root@router.home]/root: sysctl kern.timecounter.choice kern.timecounter.hardware
kern.timecounter.choice: TSC-low(1000) ACPI-safe(850) i8254(0) HPET(950) dummy(-1000000)
kern.timecounter.hardware: TSC-low

          and my /boot/loader.conf.local:

          
ahci_load="YES"
kern.timecounter.tc.HPET.quality=5000

          EDIT: just checked, the ntpd.drift was auto created again, and ntpq -c 'rl' -wp:

          
[2.2.6-RELEASE][root@router.home]/root: ntpq -c 'rl' -wp
associd=0 status=0615 leap_none, sync_ntp, 1 event, clock_sync,
version="ntpd 4.2.8p4@1.3265-o Mon Oct 26 14:28:17 UTC 2015 (1)",
processor="amd64", system="FreeBSD/10.1-RELEASE-p25", leap=00, stratum=2,
precision=-22, rootdelay=13.651, rootdisp=539.738, refid=206.108.0.131,
reftime=da2c62f2.f7edec27  Mon, Dec 28 2015 20:40:02.968,
clock=da2c667c.d9dcdc22  Mon, Dec 28 2015 20:55:08.851, peer=26673, tc=8,
mintc=3, offset=18.733259, frequency=14.160, sys_jitter=2.707991,
clk_jitter=4.381, clk_wander=0.158
     remote           refid      st t when poll reach   delay   offset  jitter
==============================================================================
*ntp1.torix.ca   .PPS.            1 u  108  256  377   13.651   18.733   3.819
+ns509831.ip-167-114-101.net
                 192.95.25.79     3 u  247  256  377   38.462   21.008   2.539
+zero.gotroot.ca 30.114.5.31      2 u   45  256  377   63.321   18.919   5.488
-ntp3.torix.ca   .PPS.            1 u  250  256  377   12.037   17.734   3.188

          Release: pfSense 2.4.3(amd64)
          M/B: Supermicro A1SRi-2558F
          HDD: Intel X25-M 160G
          RAM: 2x8Gb Kingston ECC ValueRAM
          AP: Netgear R7000 (XWRT), Unifi AC Pro

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • P
            pfcode
            last edited by

            After 12 hours:

            
[2.2.6-RELEASE][root@router.home]/root: sysctl kern.timecounter.choice kern.timecounter.hardware
kern.timecounter.choice: TSC-low(1000) ACPI-safe(850) i8254(0) HPET(950) dummy(-1000000)
kern.timecounter.hardware: TSC-low

            so the config: kern.timecounter.tc.HPET.quality=5000, didn't work?

            
[2.2.6-RELEASE][root@router.home]/root: ntpq -c 'rl' -wp
associd=0 status=0615 leap_none, sync_ntp, 1 event, clock_sync,
version="ntpd 4.2.8p4@1.3265-o Mon Oct 26 14:28:17 UTC 2015 (1)",
processor="amd64", system="FreeBSD/10.1-RELEASE-p25", leap=00, stratum=2,
precision=-22, rootdelay=13.518, rootdisp=534.552, refid=206.108.0.131,
reftime=da2d185a.f89c6a19  Tue, Dec 29 2015  9:34:02.971,
clock=da2d1b1c.a4e5378f  Tue, Dec 29 2015  9:45:48.644, peer=26673, tc=9,
mintc=3, offset=-4.883652, frequency=22.213, sys_jitter=3.014387,
clk_jitter=1.394, clk_wander=0.350
     remote           refid      st t when poll reach   delay   offset  jitter
==============================================================================
*ntp1.torix.ca   .PPS.            1 u  176  512  377   13.518   -4.884   3.014
+ns509831.ip-167-114-101.net
                 192.95.25.79     3 u  174  512  377   37.712   -3.224   3.179
+zero.gotroot.ca 30.114.5.31      2 u  494  512  377   65.952   -2.459   2.313
+ntp3.torix.ca   .PPS.            1 u   40  512  377   15.540   -3.908   2.592

            Release: pfSense 2.4.3(amd64)
            M/B: Supermicro A1SRi-2558F
            HDD: Intel X25-M 160G
            RAM: 2x8Gb Kingston ECC ValueRAM
            AP: Netgear R7000 (XWRT), Unifi AC Pro

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • M
              mer
              last edited by

              Maybe you need to add "kern.timecounter.hardware=HPET" to loader.conf?  that's what "man timecounters" seems to be saying.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • P
                pfcode
                last edited by

                @mer:

                Maybe you need to add "kern.timecounter.hardware=HPET" to loader.conf?  that's what "man timecounters" seems to be saying.

                you meant: loader.config.local?

                Release: pfSense 2.4.3(amd64)
                M/B: Supermicro A1SRi-2558F
                HDD: Intel X25-M 160G
                RAM: 2x8Gb Kingston ECC ValueRAM
                AP: Netgear R7000 (XWRT), Unifi AC Pro

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • F
                  fragged
                  last edited by

                  Correct file name is 'loader.conf.local'.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • M
                    mer
                    last edited by

                    Yep, "loader.conf.local".  Thanks for catching it.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • P
                      pfcode
                      last edited by

                      Tried all, but the kern.timecounter.hardware is always TSC-low, unless I ran the command:

                      
sysctl kern.timecounter.hardware=HPET

                      Any hints?

                      Release: pfSense 2.4.3(amd64)
                      M/B: Supermicro A1SRi-2558F
                      HDD: Intel X25-M 160G
                      RAM: 2x8Gb Kingston ECC ValueRAM
                      AP: Netgear R7000 (XWRT), Unifi AC Pro

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • P
                        pfcode
                        last edited by

                        Solved by adding an entry (kern.timecounter.hardware, value: HPET) in the system->Advanced->System Tunables.

                        Release: pfSense 2.4.3(amd64)
                        M/B: Supermicro A1SRi-2558F
                        HDD: Intel X25-M 160G
                        RAM: 2x8Gb Kingston ECC ValueRAM
                        AP: Netgear R7000 (XWRT), Unifi AC Pro

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • D
                          dbykov @RonpfS
                          last edited by

                          @RonpfS I know it's an ancient thread but I googled and couldn't find existing solution to this problem.

                          In my case time sync issues in Windows (all those 0x800705B4 errors) were fixed by unchecking the "Enable KOD packets" option in NTP server ACL page.

                          Hope it could help someone.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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