Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Time Configuration for AD in Australia

 

The time configuration is very important for Active Directory. With just a few minutes deviation on the client to the server a client will no longer be able to authenticate to servers in the domain. This is why time should be based on a well known Internet time sources for Domain Controllers in the core data centres.

Domain Controllers outside primary data centres can receive time from the other DCs or a local NTP server. Each of these local DCs can then act a local time servers for clients and servers within that site.

Some of the key public NTP servers for Australia are listed below:

  • NSW ntp.nml.csiro.au Stratum two
  • NSW ntp.syd.connect.com.au Stratum two
  • NSW ntp1.tpg.com.au Stratum two
  • VIC ntp.mel.connect.com.au Stratum two
  • SA ntp.adelaide.edu.au Stratum two
  • VIC time.deakin.edu.au Stratum two
  • VIC time.esec.com.au Stratum two
  • SA ns.unisa.edu.au Stratum three
  • ACT ntp.can.connect.com.au Stratum three
  • QLD ntp.bri.connect.com.au Stratum three
  • SA ntp.ade.connect.com.au Stratum three
  • WA ntp.per.connect.com.au Stratum three

To explain the different types of time servers, they are listed below:

  1. Stratum 0: Atomic clocks (caesium, rubidium), GPS clocks or other radio clocks, these are not connected to the internet directly
  2. Stratum 1: Computers attached to stratum 0 devices. Normally they act as servers for timing requests from Stratum 2 servers via NTP
  3. Stratum 2: Computers that send NTP requests to Stratum 1 servers and communicate with peer stratum 2 computers for accuracy
  4. Stratum 3: Functionally the same as Stratus 2 serve as the next in a possible 256 tiers of time servers

Good luck and be on time.

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