system clock is too slow

[Rick Stevens]

Jorge Fábregas wrote:
> On Tuesday 27 July 2004 6:45 pm, Mike Hogsett wrote:
> 
>>;/etc/init.d/ntpd start
> 
> 
> I've been using ntp for a while..but I've been using ntpdate. I have it on 
> root's crontab and it runs like 6 times a day. My question is: what's the 
> difference..or is there any advantage running a full-time daemon(ntpd) vs the 
> ntpdate command?

ntpdate drags your machine kicking and screaming into compliance with
your NTP servers RIGHT NOW, while ntpd KEEPS it current.  If ntpd has to
pull the machine into compliance, it does it just a little bit at a time
so it may take quite a while for it to get it synchronized.  Once the
clock is synched, ntpd will keep it synched.

Think of ntpdate as a "rapid charger" on your clock, while ntpd is a
"trickle charger".  Another analogy is ntpdate is a sledge hammer (get
the grunt work done), ntpd is a jewler's mallet (do the fine tuning).

Ideally, you use ntpdate once (normally at boot), and have ntpd run in
the background.  That's what the startup scripts do.
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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-        Brain:  The organ with which we think that we think.        -
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