/etc/inet/ntp.client, edit it and copy it to /etc/inet/ntp.conf
# echo "server 0.pool.ntp.org" > /etc/inet/ntp.conf # echo "server 1.pool.ntp.org" >> /etc/inet/ntp.conf # echo "server 2.pool.ntp.org" >> /etc/inet/ntp.conf # echo "server 3.pool.ntp.org" >> /etc/inet/ntp.conf
I’m prefering using 4 time servers. I think you could either use 1 or 4 ntp servers. Never use 2. And don’t use three, as when one fails, you have two time servers. And as i said, never use two. Why? An old saying goes: You never know how late it is when you have two clocks. I suggest reading the pool.ntp.org website for choosing a pool as there are continental and country-wide pools as well that may result in a more precise time. As Brian correctly stated in the comments, choosing a pool with servers containing only servers near you can really influence the precision of the time. So for example when you are living in the germany, you would use 0.de.pool.ntp.org for example, when you are living in the United states you would use 0.us.pool.ntp.org.
Now we add some additional configuration information. It’s more or less a copy of the stuff in /etc/inet/ntp.client:
# echo "driftfile /var/ntp/ntp.drift" >> /etc/inet/ntp.conf # echo "statsdir /var/ntp/ntpstats/" >> /etc/inet/ntp.conf # echo "filegen peerstats file peerstats type day enable" >> /etc/inet/ntp.conf # echo "filegen loopstats file loopstats type day enable" >> /etc/inet/ntp.conf
As you surely know, the ntp daemon doesn’t synchronize time, when the time offset between time on the client and the time on the server is too large. So doing a ntpdate to initially force a time sync is a good idea:
# ntpdate 0.pool.ntp.org 3 Apr 13:46:49 ntpdate[1183]: step time server 205.233.73.201 offset -7200.059798 sec
Now we just have to enable ntp via SMF
# svcadm enable ntp ntpdate -u 0.north-america.pool.ntp.org
And voila, one line has a *. NTP is starting to do it’s job:
root@solaris:/home/jmoekamp# ntpq -p
remote refid st t when poll reach delay offset jitter
==============================================================================
*name1.glorb.com 128.252.19.1 2 u 26 64 377 115.686 -79.812 12.485
+javanese.kjsl.c 69.36.224.15 2 u 40 64 377 107.082 -76.553 7.621
+10504.x.rootbsd 192.5.41.209 2 u 50 64 377 170.988 -73.474 5.841
-bindcat.fhsu.ed 192.43.244.18 2 u 47 64 377 137.639 -65.591 6.667