Time Server Sync issues

Malcolm
Contributor II

I was wondering if I can pick a few brains.

We have a time server configured on all our MacBooks, but the majority of deices, still all have inconsistent times, is this a known bug?

In soem cases if you unselect it and select it, will update, but for many the time doesnt change to the same as other machines?

4 REPLIES 4

crbeck
Contributor

The only issue I've had related to time is when we previously had all of our Macs pointed to an internal NTP server and MacBooks started going home and users would let the batteries die.

Is the NTP server accessible for all MacBooks and do you have either a correct time zone configured or setting the time zone automatically based on location services?

millersc
Valued Contributor

I've seen the time drift in our fleet. I've set up a script to run weekly, on all devices to fix the skew. This usually results in minor adjustments but does keep things in check.

Malcolm
Contributor II

@crbeck Yeah sadly it is set up to be externally accessible, but I might double check it and see if there is a issue there.
Also have a regular script running which should also adjust the time, for the devices that run dead flat.

AVmcclint
Honored Contributor

Because of the seemingly random frequency the macOS syncs up with the atomic clocks or internal time servers, I added a command to our daily Inventory policy. ntpdate -u 10.1.0.0 That way I can almost guarantee that each mac will sync every day with our internal time servers. The only way this fails is if someone goes on vacation for 2 weeks while their laptop is put to sleep, then their battery dies and the clock gets reset back to 1970 (or whatever the zero date is now.)