[time-nuts] OT: NTP server questions

[Hal Murray]

> Basically I need something to provide time within one second.  I can't roll
> my own in this case.  At home I have a Soekris box with a custom built gps
> board for my normal level of time-nuttery but this is not for home.  I'm
> looking for commercially made rack mount servers that will not have Internet
> access for reference and will need to rely on gps.   The system will need to
> serve time to less than 100 systems but it will live in a nasty environment
> in the back of a humvee (or something like an S-250 electronics enclosure)
> with no air conditioning of any sort.  I'm currently looking at Symmetricom,
> Trimble NetRS, EndRun, and Meinberg. 

100 systems is falling off a log.

If you have some other server that isn't overloaded, it may be better overall 
to run NTP on that system.  The idea is to avoid adding another box just for 
NTP.  If you do something like that, you may still need a GPS unit.  I don't 
have any good suggestions.

One alternative to a GPS unit would be to set the time somehow, and then just 
let it coast for the duration of your experiment.

You could set it by hand, or via a temporary network connection, or from the 
RTC/TOY clock at boot time (but then you have to check that occasionally) or 
...  That's adding an operational step in order to get simpler hardware.



-- 
These are my opinions, not necessarily my employer's.  I hate spam.