NTP time on closed network.

[borgy95]

Hello HTS,

Just to start off, love the site been lurking awhile now and been going through the missions, loving it a heap and learning so much! alot more enjoyable then spamming wasd all evening!

To my question...
I need to set up a NTP server (pref Windows but not compulsory) to regulate the network. This really wouldn't be an issue if the NTP port in our firewalls could be opened, however i have been told this is a no go! (down to security paranoia) So using a NTP server through the web is a no go. THe other two options i can think of is i put in a request to buy a NTP server or some sort of radio atomic clock... However for our requirements this is overkill, We are just running a large test lab so even if we are running at +-10secs it really doesnt matter as long as we are within +-1-2mins.

So i was hoping to use the internal clock on a dell poweredge 1850/1950, after scouring the web for a long time i have seen many solutions to various problems but i can't figure out how to apply it all to my situation. Does anyone have any idea how i might go about doing this? IS it even possible (im beginning to think it may not be).

Additionally the DC cannot be the NTP server as it is a VM (which is super shit at keeping time). So i need a seperate physical machine (the dell) to inform the DC of the time using its internal clock.

-- Fri Mar 16, 2012 1:52 pm --

Seems my question is drawing blanks, if i rephrase it in a simpler way maybe someone might be point me in the right direction...

Is it possible to configure a dell poweredge 1850 to uses it's internal clock as a way to hold time and then distribute it a stratum 1 time authority?

[Billibus_Maximus]

It should be easy enough to configure the dell as a time server and have your other machines sync against it. But there's no guarantee that the dell is going to keep decent time without syncing it against something regularly - even hardware clocks drift.

Though, even without syncing the dell, your systems will be in-sync with each other. For many use cases, this is adequate.

[borgy95]

hi billibus, thanks,

do you happen to know of any good websites that explain the method to do this... ive read alot but im getting more and more confused rather then clearer?

[Billibus_Maximus]

If you can, the easiest thing to do would probably be to turn the dell into another DC, set it to be an authoritative time server, then set your other DC (in the VM) to not be authoritative. The domain should automatically keep time sync'd, and with those settings, it should sync against the dell rather than the VM.

If not, then it's just a matter of telling all of your machines to use the dell as a time server. Here's a place to start - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc773263(v=ws.10).aspx