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    NTP and stratum issue

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • johnpozJ
      johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
      last edited by

      Dude but isn't 4.2.4p5 really really freaking old??  didn't 4.2.4p5 come out in like Aug of 2008??  What version of os x and freebsd are you running that that would be the ntp version?

      So help validate this, I grabbed an OLD version for windows - couldn't find the exact 4.2.4p5 but p8 pretty close, and yeah fails..

      oldversionntp.png
      oldversionntp.png_thumb

      An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
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      Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
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      • S
        slu
        last edited by

        @fatsailor:

        stratum 16, precision -6, leap 11, trust 000

        See exactly the same with a older CentOS (guess 6.4) Server, Debian 7/8 works.

        pfSense Gold subscription

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        • johnpozJ
          johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
          last edited by

          Yeah it looks like there is a issue between versions of ntp..  What version of ntp is the centos box running

          An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
          If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
          Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
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          • S
            slu
            last edited by

            @johnpoz:

            What version of ntp is the centos box running

            Don't know which version was affected, now it is a CentOS 6.7 with ntp.x86_64 4.2.6p5-5.el6.centos.2 and it working as expected.

            pfSense Gold subscription

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            • D
              David_W
              last edited by

              ntpdate is rather bitrotted and has been on the pathway to deprecation for some time.

              Depending on the usage case, sntp or ntpd -gq should be used - the link in the previous paragraph gives some background and implementation considerations.

              FreeBSD base system only abandoned ntp 4.2.4 in the second half of 2015.

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              • C
                charliem
                last edited by

                @fatsailor:

                Rather than update the entire office of OSX clients and Freenas servers to a newer version of ntpdate, I think we're just going to make ntpdate an alias to 'ntpd -qg -c <special config="">' or something along those lines. That way we don't have to worry about dependencies etc.

                I'll probably file a bug with Freenas also so someone else doesn't waste an afternoon chasing this one down.</special>

                It was reported here that choosing certain parameters in NTP access restrictions would work around this bug in older ntpdate client versions.  I haven't tested myself, but if it works then you wouldn't have to touch each client.

                Yes, 'ntpd -gq' is the right approach going forward, but it may not be practical to upgrade client machines.

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                • johnpozJ
                  johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                  last edited by

                  So looking at that thread.. And a simple test with old ntpdate, its the KOD packet that is killing the old version for some reason..

                  If you uncheck the Kiss-o'-death, then ntpdate from old client works… If you have it enabled then it fails with stratum 16, and leap 11

                  edit:  Seems if kod is enabled, it also places a limited in the restrictions, which is a conflict when you have no monitor set as well, which is in the conf file but don't see anyway in the gui to edit that.

                  Jan 5 04:05:38 ntpd[11014]: restrict: 'monitor' cannot be disabled while 'limited' is enabled

                  If you uncheck kod, then the kod is removed from the conf as well as the limited.

                  disable monitor
                  statsdir /var/log/ntp
                  logconfig =syncall +clockall +peerall +sysall
                  driftfile /var/db/ntpd.drift
                  restrict default nomodify nopeer notrap
                  restrict -6 default nomodify nopeer notrap

                  If you check the kod option in access restrictions you get
                  disable monitor
                  statsdir /var/log/ntp
                  logconfig =syncall +clockall +peerall +sysall
                  driftfile /var/db/ntpd.drift
                  restrict default kod limited nomodify nopeer notrap
                  restrict -6 default kod limited nomodify nopeer notrap

                  nokodworks.png
                  nokodworks.png_thumb
                  kodsetting.png
                  kodsetting.png_thumb

                  An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                  If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                  Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                  SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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                  • D
                    David_W
                    last edited by

                    @johnpoz:

                    And a simple test with old ntpdate, its the KOD packet that is killing the old version for some reason..

                    If you uncheck the Kiss-o'-death, then ntpdate from old client works… If you have it enabled then it fails with stratum 16, and leap 11

                    In this case, kiss-of-death is working as intended, but ntpdate earlier that some time during the 4.2.7 cycle fails to understand it.

                    Dave Hart posted an excellent analysis of this scenario in the comp.protocols.time.ntp newsgroup.

                    I found:
                    discard average 6 minimum 0
                    got my ntp servers working with old ntpdate binaries and kiss-of-death enabled.

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                    • johnpozJ
                      johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                      last edited by

                      why wouldn't you update vs downgrade..  I show it working with current ntpdate.

                      An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                      If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                      Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                      SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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                      • D
                        David_W
                        last edited by

                        @johnpoz:

                        why wouldn't you update vs downgrade..  I show it working with current ntpdate.

                        It's a compatibility thing. Nothing here runs ntp older than 4.2.8p4 (4.2.8p5 has just released), but there are circumstances where older remote clients need to run against my servers.

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                        • H
                          HeMaN
                          last edited by

                          Thank you for this topic. Was pulling my hair out why my Thecus nas was the only device not able to sync with time my pfsense box.
                          All test done from my windows pc showed no issues. Looking on the nas I found out it is not using ntpd / ntpq but ntpdate (ntpdate 4.2.4p8 to be exact)

                          throug a long way of searching came to this topic.

                          After setting "ACL - Custom Access Restrictions" in pfSense for the IP of my NAS and disabeling KOD, all is working fine

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                          • johnpozJ
                            johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                            last edited by

                            Glad the topic was of use of you HeMan.. When I saw this show up as something new it - was at first ah shit some spammer necro an old thread ;)  Nice to see it was someone actual used the info contained in old threads for what they are meant for ;)

                            An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                            If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                            Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                            SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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