Supervising the Network

7-39

Maintaining the NetWare Server

Managing Network Time Synchronization

Synchronization Limits

Since clocks in computers vary, synchronizing all servers in a network to the

same precise time is almost impossible. By default, time synchronization is

set up to allow for a two-second time variance between network time and a

server's time. Servers that come within that two-second variance are

considered synchronized. You can adjust this value, called a

synchronization radius, to ﬁt your applications and network conﬁguration:

• Increase this value if the server is losing synchronization because the server has

a heavy load, there are multiple routers between the server and the time sources,

or your system is connected to a network with heavy traffic.

• Decrease this value if you have an application that requires a finer

synchronization to order events correctly and your network configuration will

support it.

Synchronized servers (Secondary and Primary) continue to make small

adjustments in an attempt to bring their time within the limits set by a

tolerance value (one millisecond default). Once the server's time is within

the range allowed by the tolerance value, the server stops making time

adjustments. You can adjust the tolerance value (called a correction ﬂoor) to

ﬁt your network conﬁguration and hardware.

For more information on conﬁguring synchronization limits, see the

following variables in SAM:

• Correction Floor

• Synchronization Radius

Creating a Custom Time Source Configuration

NetWare allows you to control what type of time services a NetWare server

provides, which time servers a NetWare server contacts for time

synchronization, how frequently the server must contact or poll the sources,

and how the time adjustments are made.

Use the following procedure to adjust these variables:

Prerequisites

• Access to the server console

• Superuser permission to use SAM