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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

      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
      SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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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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