[c-nsp] IOS-XR Vs. NTP in a duel to the death.

[Drew Weaver]

Okay so I've been trying to figure out exactly what IOS XR has a problem with regarding our internal NTP servers.

I was seeing things like this:

RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:Oct 31 15:18:37.422 EDT: ntpd[263]: %IP-IP_NTP-5-HP_CONN_LOST : High priority NTP peer connection lost - Stratum 2->3.
RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:Oct 31 15:34:14.370 EDT: ntpd[263]: %IP-IP_NTP-5-HP_CONN_RECOVERED : High priority NTP peer connection recovered - Stratum 3->2.
RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:Oct 31 16:09:25.511 EDT: ntpd[263]: %IP-IP_NTP-5-SYNC_LOSS : Synchronization lost : 192.168.123.6 : System clock selection failed
RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:Oct 31 16:09:25.511 EDT: ntpd[263]: %IP-IP_NTP-5-HP_CONN_LOST : High priority NTP peer connection lost - Stratum 2->3.
RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:Oct 31 16:30:30.792 EDT: ntpd[263]: %IP-IP_NTP-5-HP_CONN_RECOVERED : High priority NTP peer connection recovered - Stratum 3->2.
RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:Oct 31 16:43:10.566 EDT: ntpd[263]: %IP-IP_NTP-5-SYNC_LOSS : Synchronization lost : 192.168.123.6 : System clock selection failed
RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:Oct 31 16:43:10.566 EDT: ntpd[263]: %IP-IP_NTP-5-HP_CONN_LOST : High priority NTP peer connection lost - Stratum 2->3.
RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:Oct 31 20:35:05.657 EDT: ntpd[263]: %IP-IP_NTP-5-HP_CONN_RECOVERED : High priority NTP peer connection recovered - Stratum 3->2.
RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:Oct 31 21:10:08.789 EDT: ntpd[263]: %IP-IP_NTP-5-SYNC_LOSS : Synchronization lost : 192.168.123.6 : System clock selection failed
RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:Oct 31 21:10:08.789 EDT: ntpd[263]: %IP-IP_NTP-5-HP_CONN_LOST : High priority NTP peer connection lost - Stratum 2->3.
RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:Oct 31 21:45:00.912 EDT: ntpd[263]: %IP-IP_NTP-5-HP_CONN_RECOVERED : High priority NTP peer connection recovered - Stratum 3->2.
RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:Oct 31 22:04:17.083 EDT: ntpd[263]: %IP-IP_NTP-5-SYNC_LOSS : Synchronization lost : 192.168.123.6 : System clock selection failed
RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:Oct 31 22:04:17.083 EDT: ntpd[263]: %IP-IP_NTP-5-HP_CONN_LOST : High priority NTP peer connection lost - Stratum 2->3.
RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:Oct 31 22:19:58.036 EDT: ntpd[263]: %IP-IP_NTP-5-HP_CONN_RECOVERED : High priority NTP peer connection recovered - Stratum 3->2.
RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:Oct 31 22:51:33.959 EDT: ntpd[263]: %IP-IP_NTP-5-SYNC_LOSS : Synchronization lost : 192.168.123.6 : System clock selection failed

I did some research and Cisco states that the error means what it says: It can't keep the clock synced with the configured NTP server.

So I created 5 more NTP servers and configured it to use all 6 of them.

It is actually now having sync issues MORE often.

I am considering just suppressing the logs for this particular type of log message but before I do that, has anyone ever actually figured out what problem IOS XR has with standards compliant and fully functional NTP servers?

Is there a special way that you have to configure ntpd on a linux host to get this to.. stop?