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OK, stupid question for the day ;)

How do I setup a 2008R2DC to be the domain time server? I have the link to the MS KB article and I have the link to the pool.ntp.org site with a whole bunch of addresses I am supposed to use...but for the life of me its not penetrating my skull.

Can someone break it down for me in far more simpler terms ;)

I even downloaded the 'Fix it for me' tool from MS in that KB article - the external one, and tried cutting and pasting the top two server x.pool.ntp.org links into the fix it for me wizard and it didn't work. I am positive I am just overlooking one small crucial detail to make it sync in ;)

As always, any and all help is greatly appreciated ;)

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Are you sure it didn't work? Any machine joined to the domain is set to use the domain controller as its time source by default for security reasons (Kerberos, etc.) –  Joel E Salas Feb 8 '12 at 8:24
Possible duplicate of this question? serverfault.com/questions/330710/… –  Nic Feb 9 '12 at 17:30
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3 Answers

Firstly, your DC's ARE network time servers by default, so you don't need to 'enable' that as a feature or anything.

All you're trying to do is synchronise it with an external time server. To do that, type the following in a command prompt:

W32tm /config /syncfromflags:manual /manualpeerlist: 0.uk.pool.ntp.org,1.uk.pool.ntp.org,2.uk.pool.ntp.org
W32tm /config /reliable:yes
W32tm /config /update
W32tm /resync

Changing the NTP servers to whatever you want, of course.

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See pool.ntp.org for listings of regional and country specific domains to get local time servers. –  Richard Feb 8 '12 at 9:19
Cheers for this Dan. I was getting errors after yoru first line about Unrecognised commands....bu thtat error lead me to another forum post somewhere that gave me a command almost identical to yours but basically your top 3 lines into a single one line command which did work. I'll see if I can find it again and repost it incase someone else stumbles across this thread with the same issues. But your help got me there in the end mate so its much appreciated ;) –  vlannoob Feb 9 '12 at 3:05
@vlannoob Thanks Vlan - I pulled that out of my last build documents, but it's possible I ended up doing something different but forgot to document it! –  Dan Feb 9 '12 at 8:27
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You make it the PDC emulator (role assignment for a PDC). The PDC emulator is the authoritative tiem source within the domain unless youone astarts brutally playing around with GPO's.

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Yeah, it already has the PDC role –  vlannoob Feb 9 '12 at 3:03
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up vote 0 down vote accepted

This was the line, which I edited for my Zone ntp servers, I used successfully on my Win2008R2 DC:

w32tm /config /manualpeerlist:"0.asia.pool.ntp.org 1.asia.pool.ntp.org 2.asia.pool.ntp.org" /syncfromflags:manual /reliable:yes /update

Hope it helps someone sometime ;)

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