SOLVED NTP Service

[nello]

Is there a way to make FreeNAS a network time protocol (NTP) server for my LAN?

I see there's a checkbox for this under

Services >> CIFS >> Time Server for Domain

Is there another way to turn on the FreeNAS NTP server?

Thank you.

 

[cyberjock]

That doesn't do what you think it does.

That only tells Samba to announce itself as an SMB time service to Windows clients. Notice I didn't say NTP. Now if Windows uses those interchangeably or not I don't know.

If you want to run a NTP server on your FreeNAS box your best bet would be a jail. I can't tell you more than that because you'll have to find the package and install it. My guess is ntpd supports it though.

 

[dlavigne]

Unfortunately you can't run NTP in a jail as it is unable to change the kernel's time.

 

[cyberjock]

Unfortunately you can't run NTP in a jail as it is unable to change the kernel's time.

EEw. I wondered about that after I hit "submit". Maybe FreeNAS as a NTP server isn't doable.

 

[scurrier]

Why would my FreeNAS box have UDP 123 open if I am not trying to use it as a time server? Is this a normal behavior for a machine which is only trying to synchronize but not act as a server?

 

[cyberjock]

No clue. I just tried to contact my FreeNAS server to check for the time with "ntpq -p <servername>" and my server didn't respond. So it definitely doesn't act as a NTP time server.

 

[jgreco]

Why would my FreeNAS box have UDP 123 open if I am not trying to use it as a time server? Is this a normal behavior for a machine which is only trying to synchronize but not act as a server?

Yes, that's normal. But if it's running NTPD, then it could also in theory act as a server as well. Just a matter of configuration.

No clue. I just tried to contact my FreeNAS server to check for the time with "ntpq -p <servername>" and my server didn't respond. So it definitely doesn't act as a NTP time server.

NTPD has a slightly different idea of "client" and "server". It doesn't really work quite like that. Every NTPD instance thinks of itself as a server and you can then allow access from different clients. Your NTPD may not be configured to allow queries from the IP address your query appears to be coming from.

 

[scurrier]

The reason why I asked is because freenas is responding to "ntpq -p <servername>" requests from my pfSense gateway (which is configured as the time server for everything on the network) and I don't know why.

 

[scurrier]

Whoops, sorry, I meant "ntpdate -q <servername>" was replying, not "ntpq -p <servername>"

 

[cyberjock]

pfsense lets NTP run as a time server for your network. I believe the default is on for that service too. ;)

 

[Alvin]

... "ntpq -p <servername>" and my server didn't respond. So it definitely doesn't act as a NTP time server.

Your server does not respond to ntpq(8) because of the noquery option in /etc/ntp.conf.
In fact, FreeNAS does act as an NTP server by default. You can sync time from it, but you can not monitor the NTP daemon.

So, how to use FreeNAS as an NTP server? Just use it!

 

[jgreco]

I haven't looked at the configuration for NTPD recently on FreeNAS, but recent DDOS issues against NTP have pointed out the potential for various amplification attacks against the administrative interfaces. You can use the NTPD administrative utilities on the FreeNAS host itself to check the server's status.