Forum Discussion

Retired_Member

Nov 19, 2020

ReadyNAS Timesync - thousands of queries per day to timesync server

Hi, having ReadyNAS 312 with the latest firmware 6.10.3 i am facing the following problem. Timesync settings are set to default and timesync is on. I think that NAS is doing timesync correctly, bec...

StephenB

Guru - Experienced User

Nov 20, 2020

The NAS uses connman for NTP, and AFAICT there are no settings in connman to control the polling rate. Though it looks like my own system is querying every 17 minutes.

You might want to try a different time server and see if that makes a difference. 0.pool.ntp.org; 1.pool.ntp.org generally work well, though you can also refine the geography if you like (0.us.pool.ntp.org for instance). https://www.ntppool.org/en/use.html

Retired_Member

Nov 20, 2020

Hi,

first thank you for your reply.

I have tried your settings with the following NTP servers 0.pool.ntp.org 1.pool.ntp.org but it is same as with default NTP servers.

ReadyNAS makes 2 connections every 5 seconds which results 2*12*60*24 = around 34000 connections to NTP servers per day.

(i am measuring requests to DNS server which is located inside my local network)

I can observe the only difference, when only 1 NTP server instead of 2 NTP servers is inputted.

Then 2 connections to NTP server are made every 10 seconds which results around 17k daily.

And yes, as I have double checked, time is synchronized correctly with default or ntp.org NTP servers as well as with time.windows.com

So there is no option how to influent the number of connections made, I mean the frequency? I know basic and some more linux commands which can be done via SSH. I would really like setting frequency at least to 30 seconds or 1 minute or so.

Also I have been checking if there is some custom application for ReadyNAS like running own NTP server with own custom settings.

But I have found nothing.

Retired_Member
Nov 20, 2020
To be precise. Delay between two NTP server requests is 5 seconds. Delay after the last request for NTP server (tested with 1, 2 or 3 NTP servers addresses) is 10 seconds. I would like to change it somehow, to have delay of my own choice. Any ideas?

I have also searched all connman files in my ReadyNAS via SSH, checked their content and there is really no place to set delay manually.

Would it be possible to disable timesync feature in GUI and just add a cron job? But i dont know how to call timesync procedure manually.
- StephenB
  Guru - Experienced User
  Nov 20, 2020
  Retired_Member wrote:
  
  Would it be possible to disable timesync feature in GUI and just add a cron job? But i dont know how to call timesync procedure manually.
  
  Although I've never tried it, you could try disabling timesync in the GUI and manually install NTP. You'd then need to configure that with ssh.
  
  If you do that, you shouldn't need to adapt the polling rate - it is adaptive, and the default range is 64 - 1024 seconds. The actual value depends on the jitter, but I believe in most cases it ends up near 1024.
  
  Another option perhaps is to install an NTP server somewhere (maybe the same machine that is running your DNS server?). Then point the NAS there.
  - schumaku
    Guru - Experienced User
    Nov 20, 2020
    The point is that connman ntp implements an ntpd functionality, it's not a decade depreciated ntpdate poll which happens once a day or so, leading to fascinating issues of time jump.
    
    Get some reading on what is feasible - the implementation varies of course'
    
    http://www.ntp.org/ntpfaq/NTP-s-algo.htm#Q-ALGO-SERVER-POLL
    
    Could be a crappy local clock, jitter, and the like leading to short timer settings.