Using Network Time Protocol (NTP) on openSUSE
Note: The BU servers are only available to on-campus systems. Off-campus computers should use one of the servers provided by openSUSE. Instructions on how to connect to one of these servers is at the end of this article
Contents
Setting up NTP
There are two ways to set up NTP in openSUSE. If you are installing openSUSE on a system and setting it up to use BU usernames and passwords to login to the computer (Kerberos authentication), you can set up NTP during installation. It may also be possible to set it up more generally during system installation, but in my experience this has not worked. You can also set up NTP on an already-installed system whether you are using BU usernames and passwords or not.
During Installation
Early in the installation process, you will be allowed to set your system time and time zone. There is an option to configure NTP at this time, but in my experience these options have been grayed out and unusable. If you are setting up Kerberos Authentication, at the bottom of the page where you configure your windows domain membership there will also be an option to set up NTP. Click that button to open the NTP configuration page. This page is the same as in the corresponding YaST module, so skip ahead to the NTP Configuration Module section.
On an Installed System
The first step is to open the YaST NTP configuration module. If you do not know how to open YaST, see Software Installation for instructions. You will want to click the “Network Services” icon, then click the “NTP Configuration” module. If the module is not present, try installing the “yast2-ntp-client” package (see Software Installation for instructions on installing packages).
NTP Configuration Module
Once the module is open, you should see two tabs, “General Settings” and “Security Settings”. Security settings are not necessary for our purposes, so you can ignore that tab. At the top of the “Start NTP Daemon”, make sure it is set to “Now and On Boot”. Below that is “Runtime Configuration Policy”. You should leave that as-is. Below that is a large white area. It will probably list only “undisciplined local clock”. If anything else is in there, select it and click the “delete” button (do not delete the local clock).
Next, click the “add” button. Select “server” option. What you do next will depend on whether you are on-campus or off-campus:
On-Campus Configuration (BU Servers)
If you are setting up an on-campus computer, synchronizing your time to the BU servers is the best option. This will keep your system in sync with the rest of the campus, allowing better integration with the BU network. You will have to manually the following three servers in the “Address” text box. You can only enter one at a time. After you enter each one, click the “test” button to make sure it is working properly, then click “ok” at the bottom. None of the other options matter.
ntp1.bu.edu ntp2.bu.edu ntp3.bu.edu
After you have entered each one, click “OK”.
Off-Campus Configuration (Third-Party Servers)
If you are setting up an off-campus computer, BU’s servers are not available to you. You should use a third-party server provided by openSUSE. Some are government-run and others are run by other private or public organization. Next to the text box click the “Select” button, and click “Public NTP Server”. I usually use “time.nist.gov”, but I do not know for sure which server is the best, and I make no guarantees regarding the quality of any server. It probably doesn’t matter a whole lot. Whichever server you pick, click “test”, “OK”, “OK”, and “OK” a third time to finish the configuration. You can set more than one server if you wish.