Bug 1840239

For whatever it's worth, as the node was apparently ready to use PTP I configured a MachineConfig resource to enable it in chrony and it worked, so this is probably some bug in the operator and not in the instances:

$ cat << EOF | base64 -w0
refclock PHC /dev/ptp0 poll 3 dpoll -2 offset 0
driftfile /var/lib/chrony/drift
makestep 1.0 3
rtcsync
logdir /var/log/chrony
EOF

$ cat << EOF | oc create -f -
apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfig
metadata:
  labels:
    machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: master
  name: 99-masters-chrony-configuration
spec:
  config:
    ignition:
      config: {}
      security:
        tls: {}
      timeouts: {}
      version: 2.2.0
    networkd: {}
    passwd: {}
    storage:
      files:
      - contents:
          source: data:text/plain;charset=utf-8;base64,<previous_base64_encoded_string>
          verification: {}
        filesystem: root
        mode: 420
        path: /etc/chrony.conf
  osImageURL: ""
EOF

$ oc debug node/sgarcia-ocp444-4lld6-master-1 -- chroot /host chronyc sources
Starting pod/sgarcia-ocp444-4lld6-master-1-debug ...
To use host binaries, run `chroot /host`
210 Number of sources = 1
MS Name/IP address         Stratum Poll Reach LastRx Last sample               
===============================================================================
#* PHC0                          0   3   377    12  -4276ns[-7050ns] +/-  629ns

Removing debug pod ...
$ oc debug node/sgarcia-ocp444-4lld6-master-1 -- chroot /host chronyc tracking
Starting pod/sgarcia-ocp444-4lld6-master-1-debug ...
To use host binaries, run `chroot /host`
Reference ID    : 50484330 (PHC0)
Stratum         : 1
Ref time (UTC)  : Tue May 26 16:15:11 2020
System time     : 0.000001258 seconds slow of NTP time
Last offset     : -0.000004220 seconds
RMS offset      : 0.000004212 seconds
Frequency       : 0.311 ppm slow
Residual freq   : -0.006 ppm
Skew            : 0.276 ppm
Root delay      : 0.000000001 seconds
Root dispersion : 0.000015134 seconds
Update interval : 8.0 seconds
Leap status     : Normal

Removing debug pod ...

Hi Sergio,

The PTP operator was made for Baremetal environments.

The list of interfaces is empty because the ptp operator uses the ptp4l and phc2sys that are for physical interfaces not the virtual device exposed by the hypervisor inside the guest.

do you recommend to add a note in the ptp page (https://docs.openshift.com/container-platform/4.3/networking/multiple_networks/configuring-ptp.html) that for virtual devices the user should use chrony with the following link (https://docs.openshift.com/container-platform/4.4/installing/install_config/installing-customizing.html#installation-special-config-crony_installing-customizing)?

Hi Sebastian.
>> do you recommend to add a note in the ptp page (https://docs.openshift.com/container-platform/4.3/networking/multiple_networks/configuring-ptp.html) that for virtual devices the user should use chrony with the following link (https://docs.openshift.com/container-platform/4.4/installing/install_config/installing-customizing.html#installation-special-config-crony_installing-customizing)?


Yeah, absolutely. If the PTP operator is not meant to be used for virtual machines I would add an example of a valid chrony.conf file using PTP (the one that I've added in my previous comment) so customers can make their choice whenever they want to configure chrony.

Why shouldn't the PTP operator just magically support machines on Azure? Can you please point me to the rational and the design decision?

(In reply to Eric Paris from comment #4)
> Why shouldn't the PTP operator just magically support machines on Azure? Can
> you please point me to the rational and the design decision?

Hi Eric,

This is proposal https://github.com/openshift/enhancements/blob/master/enhancements/ptp-time-integration.md#non-goals


Thanks!
Sebastian

Based upon the proposal linked by Sebastian and comment https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1840239#c3 , I am moving this to documentation.

I've created the following PR for this:

https://github.com/openshift/openshift-docs/pull/27167