[c-nsp] NTP Server Recommendation?

[Daniel Roesen]

On Sat, Feb 05, 2011 at 05:32:10PM -0600, Michael Vinogradsky wrote:
> The design would be comprised of two redundant NTP server in separate
> geographic locations.

As Phil Mayer outlined, you should really consider using three to
protect from a "falseticker"

> The budget in the ballpark of two 2800 routers. Precision is not that important.

A lot of variables are missing, but I guess your need is just get
"current time" distributed so clocks in your network devices don't run
off in order to be able to compare logs with reasonably synchronized
timestamps? In that case, using external NTP servers as clock reference
would probably be sufficient. Otherwise check wether you can deploy GPS
antennas - but this will most probably exceed your budget.

The gross options on the table I see are:

- build an NTP hierarchy (to distribute load) within your network,
  having e.g. your routers act as NTP servers
- deploy do-it-yourself NTP servers
- deploy 3 NTP server appliances

I'd look at
http://www.meinberg.de/english/products/lantime-m300-rdt.htm
and run them with external NTP servers as clock reference. If your needs
increase and you want to go for GPS as reference, you could later on
connect a GPS receiver+antenna. Pricing for three M300/RDT should be in
the area of two C2800 - depending on exact model, interfaces and IOS
feature set. :-) I got a quote of around 1500 EUR per unit 1.5 years
ago.

Best regards,
Daniel

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