ntpdate timeout
I've run into an interesting problem with ntpdate- we have it on most of
our servers, run once on boot as is the standard. The /etc/init.d/ntpdate
file is configured correctly, and for most of our systems it works fine. The
other day, my manager moved a system to another part of the office, where it
doesn't have network connectivity. When the ntpdate script executed, rather
than timing out after about 5 seconds (1 sec default timeout on waiting for
response from server * 5 loops), it hung the machine for over an hour before
he decided to do a hard reset. The machine wouldn't respond to keyboard
inputs (control-c, control-alt-del). I ran it myself from the command line,
and noticed that it took approximately 2 minutes to time out. This seems to
be consistent with a dns timeout, since it waits X seconds for time.ucla.edu
to resolve to an IP address then 1 second for that IP address to respond.
I'm not sure why it would hang for an hour like that, one possibility is
that when /etc/init.d/ntpdate is run, and ntpdate exits with an abnormal
code, the system doesn't realize that ntpdate isn't running, and locks
there? Any advice would be appreciated :)
jeff
--
jeff lee cell 860.857.8701
leejm@bwi.com work 203.261.6027
system administrator pager 888.662.8020
gpg key id 7AD36645 aim BOFH lec
Fingerprint: 8B29 AB6F A13E 3BF9 6F05 E12B 6DD2 98B2 7AD3 6645
6628020@skytel.com
Reply to: