ntpd struggling to keep up - how to fix?

[Torfinn Ingolfsen]

On Fri, 12 Feb 2010 05:11:17 -0800
Jeremy Chadwick <freebsd at jdc.parodius.com> wrote:

> Please try doing this:
> 
> - stop ntpd
> - rm /var/db/ntpd.drift
> - sysctl kern.timecounter.hardware=ACPI-safe
> - start ntpd

Thanks, I'm currently testing that. Results in 72 hours (or less) :-)

> Then see if your clock drifts.  If it stops, great -- you can put that
> sysctl assignment line in /etc/sysctl.conf and consider it a done deal.
> I highly recommend putting some comments around it though so in the
> future you don't go "What's this? Silly!" and delete it.  ;-)

Yes, I know. Learned the hard way that I need to document things for my
own use. :-)

> I'll also point out that it's common on FreeBSD[1] to see messages
> like the following (or at least it was circa 2006 -- I believe ntpd

Yes, those messages are still there. At one time, I thought about
fixing that (by using the config you present), but in the end I figured
that these messages actually helps me in pinpointing time of crash in
the (few) cases wherer one of my machines crashes or panics. So in the
end I did nothing about it.

> Finally, you should really consider adding some stratum 2 sources to
> your list, *in addition* to the stratum 3 server you're already using.

Well, the stratum 3 server is my firewall. :) All the machines on my
LAN use that one as the ntp server.
My firewall is currently using three ntp
servers as sources, one is a non-public stratum 2 server (yes, I asked
for permission before I started using it), one is the no.poool.ntp.org
pool ( stratum
3) and I just found out that the third one has stopped responding.
So I removed it.

I have added the dk.pool.ntp.org and se.pool.ntp.org pools, we will see
how that turns out.

> ntpd can happily work with multiple servers, and will pick the best one

Yes, I know. It is a few years since I set this up, but at that time I
figured that if I use three ntp servers for my firewall, and just used
the firewall for all my internal machines, that would be good enough
for my uses. 
Perhaps I need to re-evaluate my needs.
-- 
Regards,
Torfinn