NTP version 4 Release Notes HP-UX 11i v3 (5900-3073, March 2013)

1 Product Overview
Network Time Protocol (NTP) is a tool designed to synchronize your computer to the Internet time
servers or other sources such as a radio, a satellite receiver, or a telephone modem service. It is
also used as a server for dependent clients for synchronizing time. NTP provides accuracy up to
less than a millisecond on LANs and up to a few milliseconds on WANs. Typical NTP configurations
utilize multiple redundant servers and diverse network paths in order to achieve high accuracy
and reliability.
NTP v4 is the latest version of NTP available on HP-UX 11i v3 operating system. You can download
NTP v4 at: http://h20293.www2.hp.com/
NOTE:
• If NTPv4 is installed on your system, do not install XNTP 3.5. To install the XNTP 3.5, uninstall
NTP v4 first and then install the XNTP 3.5.
• Do not use allow_downdate=true option for installing XNTP 3.5 if NTP v4 is already
installed.
• XNTP 3.5 patches does not get installed when NTPv4 is installed.
• The /etc/ntp.conf is uninstalled from the system when NTP v4 is uninstalled. So, before
uninstalling NTP v4, back up the existing /etc/ntp.conf and then uninstall NTP v4.
• If NTP v4 is uninstalled, the XNTP 3.5 will not be restored on the system. Only ntpdate
binary and ntpdate manpage will be restored.
• For installing the XNTP 3.5, select HPUX-NTP —> B.11.31 HPUX NTP Server.
NTP v4 retains backwards compatibility with NTP v3, that is with XNTP 3.5, which is delivered as
a part of core in HP-UX 11i v3. NTP v4 provides new features and significant performance
improvements compared to NTP v3.
NTP v4 is an implementation of RFC 5905 (Network Time Protocol Version 4: Protocol and
Algorithms Specification).
NTP v4 also implements RFC 5906 (Network Time Protocol Version 4: Autokey Specification) for
authentication purpose.
4 Product Overview