timedatectl: NTP enabled = yes but not ntpd service running ?

[fmiranda]

Hello everyone,

Very basic question, but it can be tricky sometimes, so whay not share with a broader audience for discussion right?

So on RHEL7.x if you type the command line:

#timedatectl

You will notice on the output:

NTP enabled: yes

NTP syncronized: yes

Then you think, wow cool, ntp is already set so let me check it:

#systemctl status ntpd

And you will see that its not even running.

All the other ntp commmands like ntpq -p or ntpstat all will fail

That means - well - if I need ntpd to be running I will have to install the package and setup the ntp service properly.

So the question is: Why does the timedatectl shows you that NTP is enabled and syncronized in the first place iv ntpd is not even installed or running ?

Just curious.

Anyone?

[ricardodacosta · Accepted solution]

ntp as a protocol was provided by ntpd in RHEL6, but in RHEL7 it is provided by another daemon called chronyd.

The configuration file for chronyd is /etc/chrony.conf, and the client side tool is chronyc.

Once you've defined your NTP servers in /etc/chrony.conf, and have restarted the chronyd, you can query your timesync using chronyc sources

Make sure that timedatectl reports that NTP is being used, if not use the command:

timedatectl set-ntp on

If you want to still use the old ntp daemon, ntpd, you need to install it, enable & start it, and also disable chronyd:

yum install -y ntp
<edit /etc/ntp.conf>
systemctl start ntpd
systemctl enable ntpd
systemctl disable chronyd

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[Gary]

Good answers