Planning an NDS implementation

Developing a time synchronization strategy

Before you install the NetWare Server for UnixWare, decide the following based on your physical network layout and your network time synchronization needs:

What type of time servers do you need?
Where should time servers be located on the network so that fault tolerance is provided and network traffic is kept to a minimum?

For many environments, the default values for the time synchronization parameters are very effective. The first NetWare server installed to a Directory tree is set as a Single Reference time server. All later NetWare servers are set as Secondary time servers. The Single Reference time servers broadcast their presence and the time via SAP, and Secondary time servers listen for these broadcasts and adjust their time accordingly.

If you choose not to use the installation defaults, you need to know which time server function to designate on the server you are installing in order to implement a network-wide time synchronization plan.

Provide a time synchronization plan to all the local network supervisors who will install a NetWare Services server on the network so they can designate the correct time synchronization function on each server they install.

For more information about different ways to set up time synchronization on larger networks, see ``Choosing a time synchronization method''; on the Service Advertising Protocol, see ``Service Advertising Protocol''; and on time servers, see ``Time servers''.