Time Synchronization on NT Clusters
Time Synchronization on NT Clusters
Time synchronization has always been difficult on NT clusters. Time synchronization on NT+ domains has had somewhat of a checkered past. Microsoft originally provided the Win32 Network Time Synchronization Service (W32Time.exe) via the NT Resource Kit. It was a pain to install and configure. Later, they updated to the Timeserv.exe (also in the newer Resource Kits), which made it only slightly more comprehensible. W2K+ includes a build-in system called Windows Time Service, which actually makes it easy to both setup the synchronization with an authoritative time source, and to relay the correct time to all the member workstations. The listings in "Resources" are a good place to start on finding how to setup time synchronization with various combinations of NT versions running on a domain. However the utility below is an easy way to achieve the same thing.
The importance of time synchronization on NT networks can range from important to critical. Full time synchronization actually consists of three parts and this utility achieves this. The first task is to obtain an accurate time from a known source, such as the Navy's Network Time Protocol (NTP) server at tick.usno.navy.mil, at regular intervals. The second task is to set this time as the time on the domain's "master clock" computer. The final task is to propagate the corrected time from the master time server to the rest of the machines on the network so they can update their clocks. Synchronize the clocks on the same domain by using this application. It compares the time on your local computer to any other NT+ machine on your domain, and optionally synchronizes your local time with any NT computer on your domain. A snapshot of this program GUI shown in Figure 1. To download this application called NTClusterTimeSync.exe click on it. When you run it on all the computers in your cluster and hence in your NT domain will have their time synchronized. Once you get the time you can set the time on your each computer in your cluster by clicking on set local time.
Figure 1: NTClusterTimeSync.exe GUI for synchronizing time on NT Clusters.