Arch Linux

radiobla

Member

Registered: 2020-02-19

Posts: 65

NTP and systemd-timesyncd expected behavior

I was checking the NTP network traffic and found that when no NTP server is specified manually in /etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf they seem to fallback to some third-party servers.

In the first dump, it was communicating with "xstream-labs.com". In the second dump, it communicated with "misaka.io". It seems to be "random".

Are those NTP servers part of the the *.arch.pool.ntp.org*? Are the requests redirected somehow to those third-parties?

This is my timesyncd.conf:

[Time]
#NTP=
#FallbackNTP=0.arch.pool.ntp.org 1.arch.pool.ntp.org 2.arch.pool.ntp.org 3.arch.pool.ntp.org
#RootDistanceMaxSec=5
#PollIntervalMinSec=32
#PollIntervalMaxSec=2048

Is this the expected behavior of systemd-timesyncd when nothing is set?

When one provides no values FallbackNTP and NTP properties, they fallback to random third-parties NTP servers?

Last edited by radiobla (2020-11-15 13:54:12)

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 15,391

Re: NTP and systemd-timesyncd expected behavior

To verify your configuration, use timedatectl show-timesync --all:

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Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

clean chroot building not flexible enough ?
Try clean chroot manager by graysky

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 19,041

Re: NTP and systemd-timesyncd expected behavior

*.arch.pool.ntp.org are volunteer servers registered with [1] allocated to the arch pool.
When no server is specified timesyncd will fallback to the built in defaults [2].

[1] https://www.pool.ntp.org/vendors.html
[2] https://github.com/archlinux/svntogit-p … GBUILD#L89

radiobla

Member

Registered: 2020-02-19

Posts: 65

Re: NTP and systemd-timesyncd expected behavior

Got it. Thank you!