Solaris™ 8 Network Administrator Certification Training Guide

INTRODUCTION

The Network Time Protocol (NTP) is a useful addition to Solaris 8. It is used to synchronize the system clock time on different hosts on a network. Real-time clocks usually have small drifts that result in different system time settings on different hosts. In a multiserver environment, where time-critical transactions take place, it is important that all machines have exactly the same clock setting. This is where the NTP comes into play. Using NTP, you can synchronize time on hosts with a reference time source. This time source can be an NTP server on a local network, a standard time server on the Internet, a global positioning satellite (GPS), a broadcast signal, or some other method of synchronizing time.

The NTP protocol is implemented ...