NDS time synchronization

Custom configuration

Custom configuration of your time servers might give you more control over time synchronization, but it requires more planning to synchronize servers efficiently.

An advantage of custom configuration is that you maintain complete control of the time synchronization environment. Also, custom configuration might help eliminate non-essential network SAP traffic, as well as errors associated with accidental reconfiguration.

To customize your time servers, you can use either NetWare Setup or the nwcm(1Mipx) command line utility to set the following parameters:

Time Sources. Lists the specific time source servers that a server should contact.
Configured Sources. Specifies that a server should not listen for SAP information from other time source servers.
Service Advertising. Disables time source SAP information from being broadcast to the network.
Directory Tree Mode. Indicates the server should ignore time sources advertising via SAP if the advertising does not originate on the server's Directory tree. This parameter has no effect if the Configured Sources parameter is turned on.

The custom configuration does require additional time for planning and configuration. It also makes it more difficult to install or remove Primary, Reference, or Single Reference time servers on the network. You must manually change the approved server list maintained on servers that depended on a removed server.