Description of problem: ntpd does not start after power outage because the ntp servers were not up yet. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): ntp-4.1.1a-9 on all RH8 systems. How reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. simulate power outage by stopping or disconnecting ntp servers 2. reboot or stop/start ntpd on any RH8 system 3. Actual results: ntpdate failed in stepping with the tickers and quit starting ntpd. Expected results: ntpd should be restarted like all other previous versions, default to its own local server and wait for the ntp servers that will soon be back on. Additional info:
An suggested alternative in /etc/rc.d/init.d/ntpd might be from: if [ -s "$ntpstep" ]; then ... [ ! $RETVAL -eq 0 ] && return $RETVAL else ... OPTIONS="$OPTIONS -g" fi to: if [ -s "$ntpstep" ]; then ... [ ! $RETVAL -eq 0 ] && OPTIONS="$OPTIONS -g" else ... OPTIONS="$OPTIONS -g" fi
From the ChangeLog * Fri Aug 23 2002 Jeremy Katz <katzj> - service should fail to start ntpd if running ntpdate fails
Take a scenario of power outages, not unusual here in the Northeast, we have had three earier this month during the snow storm with freezing rain. When the power comes back up, a farm of linux systems will boot itself up by default using the RH configs. The ntp servers will normally take a few seconds or more to get its ntpd running. By then all linux systems running RH8 will leave the ntpd off, other linux systems running prior version of RH8 were doing okay with ntpd started and waiting for the ntp servers to synchronize with. The worst situation is that one did not notice this until much later when the clock on those RH8 systems started to drift, authentication using Kerberos started to fail, compiling codes using nfs server started to have time stamp mismatch etc. This behavior is inconsistent, as compare to other OS, like solaris, bsd, and even older version of RH, and I certainly hope it is not a design feature. Ntpd can be configured with a local server, 127.127.1.0, so it will start even without remote servers, but it will elect one when they are available. Beside the simple fix as previously suggested, other alternative could be to loop and wait for ntpdate to success, leaving ntpd off is not an option for those who want to use ntp to keep accurate time.
fixed
*** Bug 85944 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***