Hi I have 9 Windows 2003 r2 servers which are stand alone, all the servers use thirdparty time source which is from a linux server . All our servers are very critical time sensitive trade servers. we have problem with 3 of our servers where tthere is diffrence of approx 1 to 2 seconds. Question 1)I would like to know whether w32time service should be enabled or disabled on all the servers when using third party time source ( currently all servers enabled) 2) As per Microsoft "The W32Time service cannot reliably maintain sync time to the range of 1 to 2 seconds. Such tolerances are outside the design specification of the W32Time service." 3) All the servers REgkey Hkey_Local_machine\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32\Timeproviders\NTPservers\enabled is set to "0" 4) If all the w32time services are running and the regkey (NTpservers) is set "0" does that mean w32time service precedes thirdparty time source. 5) What is the best way to identify and tweak the diffrence all 3 servers. 6) Is there any command or tool where i can actually compare all the servers time monitoring diff. John CJohn cherian

Use third party solution, here is one example http://www.symmetricom.com/products/ntp-servers/ntp-network-appliances/ Regards Milos

Hi Milos Thanks for the info Appliance is better choice but not immediately, looking forward to resolve with external time source. Thanks John c John cherian

Is your Linux server an NTP server? If yes, please configure your Windows servers as NTP clients: http://www.ehow.com/how_5981545_configure-windows-ntp-client.html If you an AD domain then, by defaut member servers sync time with the PDC Emulator (If they are using NT5DS for time sync). In this case, it will be enough to configure the PDC Emulator as an NTP client. This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights. Microsoft Student Partner 2010 / 2011 Microsoft Certified Professional Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator: Security Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer: Security Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows 7, Configuring Microsoft Certified IT Professional: Enterprise Administrator Microsoft Certified IT Professional: Server Administrator Microsoft Certified Trainer

Hi John, Thank you for your post. 1)Yes, it need to disabled. 2)Yes, they are outside the design. If you have apps that require sensitive transactional processing with timing down to the second, it is suggested to use a third party time service. If you choose to implement a third-party time synchronization product that uses NTP, you must disable the Windows Time service. This is because all NTP servers need access to User Datagram Protocol (UDP) port 123, and as long as the Windows Time service is running on the Windows Server 2003 operating system, port 123 remains reserved by Windows Time. If you want to get a list of third-party time software, please read KB939322 which include third-party publishers of time and frequency software list link. Regards, Rick Tan

Hi John, Thank you for your post. 1)Yes, it need to disabled. 2)Yes, they are outside the design. If you have apps that require sensitive transactional processing with timing down to the second, it is suggested to use a third party time service. If you choose to implement a third-party time synchronization product that uses NTP, you must disable the Windows Time service. This is because all NTP servers need access to User Datagram Protocol (UDP) port 123, and as long as the Windows Time service is running on the Windows Server 2003 operating system, port 123 remains reserved by Windows Time. If you want to get a list of third-party time software, please read KB939322 which include third-party publishers of time and frequency software list link. Regards, Rick Tan