look at systemsetup man pages.

Sean


Hi Joe

I'll save you reading the man page.

I think the pref is in /Library/Preferences/com.apple.MCX with the keyname "TimeServer"

We actually set this option through a script though.

The option to turn it on is, "systemsetup -setusingnetworktime on"

This is a script we use to

* Check the option is turned on

* Set the correct time server if it is wrong

* Force a time sync by turning the preference on and off.

TIMESERVER=systemsetup -getnetworktimeserver | awk '{print $4}'

CHECK=systemsetup -getusingnetworktime | awk '{print $3}'

if [[ "$CHECK" = "Off" ]]; then
echo "Time sync is switched off. Turning on"
systemsetup -setusingnetworktime On
elif [[ "$CHECK" = "On" ]]; then
echo "Time sync is on."
else
echo "Cant determine prefrence status. Exiting"
exit 1
fi

if [[ "$TIMESERVER" = "time.asia.apple.com" ]]; then
echo "Time server is correct. Syncing time"
systemsetup -setusingnetworktime off
sleep 5
systemsetup -setusingnetworktime on
exit 0
else
echo "Server is incorrect. Setting time server to Apple Asia."
systemsetup -setnetworktimeserver time.asia.apple.com
echo "Syncing time"
systemsetup -setusingnetworktime off
sleep 5
systemsetup -setusingnetworktime on
exit 0
fi

Nice script.

One item I like to add is a secondary time server. If available, set one internal and one external. Rather then using systemsetup -setnetworktimeserver you might try:

echo "server internal.time.server" > /private/etc/ntp.conf
echo "server external.time.server" >> /private/etc/ntp.conf

Leslie N. Helou
Senior Systems Engineer
Bell Techlogix
8888 Keystone Crossing, Suite 1700
Indianapolis, IN 46240
317.704.6408