Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 32659
ntpdate fails to operate, issues false error msg
Last modified: 2007-04-18 12:32:18 EDT
From Bugzilla Helper: User-Agent: Mozilla/4.76 [en] (X11; U; Linux 2.4.2-0.1.19 i686; Nav) ntpdate fails to operate as expected, preventing xntpd from being used. Fails to sync time, and issues bogus error message about "ntpdate[11466]: no server suitable for synchronization found" Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1.become root 2. issue command for ntpdate to sync to public time server. 3. error is issued. Compared to systems on net running RH7.0, RH6.2, and Suse 7.0 All others, with same command, sync time to the public server. Actual Results: [root@localhost /root]# ntpdate ntp.saard.net 21 Mar 21:49:59 ntpdate[11427]: no server suitable for synchronization found [root@localhost /root]# ntpdate -v -o version3 ntp.saard.net 21 Mar 21:50:53 ntpdate[11432]: ntpdate 4.0.99k Mon Mar 5 12:08:05 EST 2001 (1)21 Mar 21:50:57 ntpdate[11432]: no server suitable for synchronization found [root@localhost /root]# ntpdate ntp.saard.net 21 Mar 21:54:02 ntpdate[11466]: no server suitable for synchronization found Expected Results: using another system NOT running wolverine; utility:/etc/rc.d # ntpdate ntp.saard.net 21 Mar 21:53:27 ntpdate[10080]: step time server 203.21.37.18 offset 165.845911 sec utility:/etc/rc.d #
reproducible in our test lab against public ntp servers, and I can't find an explanation in the package documentation.
I have noticed on previous versions and systems that port 123 MUST be open for return traffic, else NTP will fail. Could this be a case where default security on Wolverine with 2.4 kernel and iptables is blocking this port by default? I am going to try to investigate the deafult security settings tonight.
Possibly, yes. Network configuration of the test machine can be the source of my error as well, will confirm with a different network config.
This seems to be a glibc issue. 4.0.99k (the 7.0 version) works fine on 7.0, but is broken on Wolverine and rawhide, with glibc 2.2.2-7 at least.
further investigation indicates this to be a firewall issue. "Medium" and "High" security firewall settings in the betas/rawhide will result in the return port for ntpdate being closed off, thuse the error. Your firewall will have to be adjusted (partially opened) to allow ntpdate to operate properly.