Quickly sync/update time from a time server

A good server machine should always tick its clock with correct time. The best way to keep it in shape is to sync with a time server.

You can use any preferred time server to sync. I’m using public time servers here:

$ ntpdate pool.ntp.org
5 Feb 11:17:00 ntpdate[3332]: step time server 220.225.252.202 offset -585.969659 sec

Network time update command (ntpdate) will contact the available time server from public pool and sync time with it. Here in above example, offset is denoting that the clock was running ahead of time in my server.

To remain updated, you should put a cron entry to sync with time server every midnight:

$ crontab -e
0 4 * * * /usr/sbin/ntpdate pool.ntp.org

This will update/correct your time in server at 04:00 am every morning. I’ve written a very quick trick to correct your time. If you are interested to study further, you can find detailed information here.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 5th, 2009 at 11:39 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

8 Responses to “Quickly sync/update time from a time server”

Linux Top10 tips on August 28th, 2010 at 10:55 am

learn!
Mike on January 21st, 2011 at 8:26 pm

Error in your command, you have 1 to many *.

crontab -e 0 4 * * * /usr/sbin/ntpdate pool.ntp.org
Xeon Project on April 15th, 2011 at 4:06 am

nice code. but to after that it is also important to set hwclock . do this with this code:

/sbin/hwclock –systohc
jagbir on April 15th, 2011 at 9:58 am

Thanks Xeon and Mike for comments, I will check further and improve code.
k on July 22nd, 2011 at 4:55 pm

i think 0 4 * * * cronjob would happen at 4am not 00:04am
jagbir on July 22nd, 2011 at 5:04 pm

Thanks k for pointing out the typo. corrected.
Blog trao doi kien thuc ve Hosting on January 13th, 2012 at 3:48 am

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[...]Quickly sync/update time from a time server | Linux Admin Zone[...]…
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