Dear All,
I installed the Solaris 2.10 (05/09) download on a Sparc platform, and wanted to configure the network time protocol daemon (xNTPD) to work as an NTP client.
Of course there are many web sites that trumpet the advise to simply copy the ntp.client file to the ntp.conf file, and then issue the svcadm enable ntp command. However, after careful study, it was determined that this command HAD NO EFFECT. Specifically, when you issue the command svcs ntp, the following text is displayed:
# svcs ntp
STATE STIME FMRI
online 10:25:59 svc:/network/ntp:default
But if you request a process list and search for ntp, nothing is returned:
# ps -ef | grep ntp
#
Further examination reveals that the logfile for the ntp service:
/var/svc/log/network-ntp:default.log
Contains the following errors:
[ Sep 11 20:47:31 Enabled. ]
[ Sep 11 20:47:31 Method property group 'start' is not present. ]
[ Sep 11 20:48:56 Stopping because service disabled. ]
[ Sep 11 20:48:56 Method property group 'stop' is not present. ]
[ Sep 11 20:49:11 Enabled. ]
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ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS
==================
Studying these sites:
MISAMAP JAVA: Config VNC server OpenSolaris
and
http://learningsolaris.com/docs/t-sm...-june-2005.pdf
The documentation contained in the second post provided a discussion of the Solaris Service Management Facility - the functionality that Sun developed to replace Inet.d.
Digging into the examples provided within this document, it was determined that the configuration of the SMF in regards to the xNTPD was incomplete/corrupted. This is significant because, as I stated in the opening paragraph, this was a brand new installation of Solaris on a Sparc Platform. So, in other words, we have a bug.
To enable SMF to correctly manage NTP, the following code was added to the SVC:/network/ntp:default script configuration for the ntp daemon:
(see absolute page 20 of the t-smf-devday-june-2005.pdf file)
start framework
start/exec astring /usr/lib/inet/xntpd
start/type astring method
refresh framework
refresh/exec astring /usr/lib/inet/xntpd
refresh/type astring method
After adding these lines to the configuration, the startup command sequence now works correctly:
svcadm refresh ntp
svcadm restart ntp
And a process list now shows the ntp daemon running correctly:
# ps -ef | grep ntp
root 2412 2105 0 10:54:24 pts/2 0:00 grep ntp
root 2358 1 0 10:25:59 ? 0:00 /usr/lib/inet/xntpd
#
***
QUESTION
For those of you that are highly knowledgeable in Solaris, can you please tell me whether or not I added all/correct variables to the SMF configuration? It works, yes, but is this the *correct* configuration? I have studied some of the other SMF configurations, but I was unsure reading them if this was correct.
Please advise.
THANK YOU!
Regards,
iic1tls
