When you’re configuring a Mac to leverage an existing Windows infrastructure, having the clocks in sync is an important task. Luckily, Windows Server has been able to act as an NTP server for a long time. In this article, we’ll look at configuring Server 2008 R2 to be an NTP server for Mac and Linux clients. Note: Before you get started, or any time you’re hacking around in the registry, make sure to do a backup of your registry/SystemState! To enable NTP on Windows Server, open your favorite registry editor and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesW32TimeTimeProvidersNtpServer. From here, enter a key called Enabled as a dword with a value of 00000001. The NTP Server should…
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Configuring Time In OS X Mountain Lion & OS X Mountain Lion Server
Time is a very important aspect of OS X Server, as it has been since the early days. Time is so important that if you see network time server, NTP or 5 minutes as the answer on an Apple exam, you should just pick that one, as it’s invariably correct. The traditional way to configure time zones and Network Time Servers is to use systemsetup command. Before you set a time zone, run the following to see a list of all available time zones, use the -listtimezones option in systemsetup: sudo systemsetup -listtimezones To set the time zone, pick one and use the -settimezone option in systemsetup: sudo systemsetup -settimezone…
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NTP, OS X, Windows, Cisco and You
At this point, most Mac admins know to how to enable ntp on a Mac OS X Server and set clients to the server. Most Mac admins also know how to use managed preferences to set ntp as well. We all know that time is pretty important and most are using ntp at this point. Network time should, almost by definition, be continuous, which allows ntpd in Mac OS X can update clocks in small denominations. Thus, managing corrections with little overhead or impact to the system enables ntp to be an inexpensive method for managing clocks. But ntp is also built to keep things running smoothly even when there…
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Install ntpd in Ubuntu Server 10
I’m sure you’re getting tired of seeing me regurgitate apt-get commands, but here’s another: apt-get install ntp This will install ntpd. Then a quick update to /etc/ntp.conf to configure who you get your updates from (I still like time.apple.com) and you’re now an ntp server. Once changed, restart the daemon: /etc/init.d/ntp restart Then, use ntpq to check your time against the server: ntpq -np Lucky us, ntp is easy, but we’re gonna’ need it for Kerberos now aren’t we…
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DHCP Leases Expanded
DHCP provides IP addresses to clients. DHCP is critical to a number of Mac OS X Server technologies, most notably with NetBoot. In doing so, communications are comprised of 4 steps: Discovery, Offer, Acceptance, and Acknowledgment. In the Discovery step, a computer that needs an IP address sends a broadcast request to the environment. These typically remain local, although most routers will allow for configuring the gateway in such a way that UDP traffic is forwarded on to other subnets. The request also includes all of the options that the client will need, with options being anything beyond an IP address, each potential option with a numerical identifier per this…
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Automating NTP Setup on Mac OS X
The two primary aspects of time setup are typically setting the time zone and setting the Network Time Protocol (NTP) server. The systemsetup command can be used to set both of these date and time options for Mac OS X computers. To see a listing of the available time zones in Mac OS X use the systemsetup with the -listtimezones option as follows: systemsetup -listtimezones Once you have the time zones you can then use systemsetup with the -settimezone option to configure the time zone on your system. It is often easiest to simply paste the time zone into the command. So to set the time zone to Detroit for…
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NetApp Failovers
Each controller of a NetApp FAS will typically have two network interfaces. Provided I have two storage controllers (and I usually do) I typically prefer to setup a NetApp in an automated failover scenario. A NetApp active/active configuration consists of two storage nodes) whose controllers are connected to each other either directly or through switches. The nodes are connected through a cluster adapter or an NVRAM adapter, which allows one node to serve data to the disks of its failed partner node. Each node continually monitors its partner, mirroring the data for each other’s nonvolatile RAM (NVRAM). Before configuring the filers for an active/active clustered failover, first verify that the…