HP-UX Internet Services Administrator's Guide (February 2007)

RFC 1305 (Network Time Protocol Version 3 – Specification and Implementation). It
is also compatible with the NTP servers Version 1 and 2 as defined in RFC 1059
(Network Time Protocol Version 1 – Specification and Implementation) and RFC 1119
(Network Time Protocol Version 2 – Specification and Implementation), respectively.
xntpd operates in the following modes: symmetric active, symmetric passive,
client/server, broadcast, and multicast mode, as specified in RFC 1305. Abroadcast or
multicast client can deploy a group of workstations without specifying configuration
details specific to the local environment A broadcast or multicast client can perform
the following functions:
• Discover remote server.
• Compute client/server propagation delay correction factors.
• Configure itself automatically.
xntpd reads the NTP configuration file, /etc/ntp.conf, during startup to determine
the synchronization sources and operating modes. You can also specify the configuration
options on the command line when you start xntpd. While xntpd is running, you can
also display xntpd variables and modify configuration options using the ntpq and
xntpdc utilities. For more information, type man 1M xntpd, man 1M ntpq or man
1M xntpdc at the HP-UX prompt.
The NTP Configuration File
The NTP configuration file, /etc/ntp.conf, contains the initial values for
synchronization sources, modes and other related information. The xntpd daemon
reads the /etc/ntp.conf file during startup to determine the initial configuration
values for the time server. The configuration file format is similar to a UNIX®
configuration file. You can insert comments with a pound symbol (#) in the beginning
of the line. A configuration command consists of an initial keyword followed by a list
of arguments. Arguments can be host names, host addresses, integers, floating point
numbers and text strings.
The configuration commands for a peer, server and broadcast are as follows:
peer address [ key key_id ] [version version _id ] [ prefer ]
server address [ key key_id ] [ version version_id ] [ prefer ] [ mode mode ]
broadcast address [ key key_id ] [ version version_id ] [ ttl ttl ]
You can use these commands to specify either the name or address of the time server,
and the mode in which the time server must operate. For more information, type man
1M xntpd at the HP-UX prompt.
Getting Started with NTP 57