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How to Sync Time of All PCs in a Domain to Domain Controller and Domain Controller to an external time server (time.windows.com)

Researcher 6 Reputation points
2024-08-16T12:20:41.2833333+00:00

Hello everyone,

I want to make sure that the domain controller itself is synced with time.windows.com. Additionally, need to ensure that all PCs within the domain are synchronized with the domain controller's time. We use Windows Server 2012 R2 and the PDC emulator role has been allotted to the Domain Controller. If the prior requirement is achieved as expected then later will be checked.

Methods I have tried so far:

1.Group Policy Configuration: I created a Group Policy Object (GPO) to configure the time service settings for all domain-joined PCs to point to the domain controller.

https://theitbros.com/sync-client-time-with-domain-controller/

https://theitbros.com/configure-ntp-time-sync-group-policy/

After implementing the method, in the registry it showed

REG add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Parameters /v NtpServer /d time.windows.com, 0x9

but on running w32tm /query /status, in source it shows "Local CMOS Clock", which is contradictory.

2.Manual NTP Configuration on Domain Controller: I manually configured the domain controller to use an external NTP server by adjusting the registry settings.

https://community.spiceworks.com/t/fix-time-sync-in-your-domain-use-w32time/1013081

https://theitbros.com/sync-client-time-with-domain-controller/

Even in this method the results remained same as above

Is there any other setting I am missing ? Please share any step by step procedure to set up time sync of Domain Controller to external time server (time.windows.com, 0x9). If anyone could provide any insights on this situation would be greatly appreciated

Thank you all in advance

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  1. Yanhong Liu 8,055 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor
    2024-08-19T06:06:41.9766667+00:00

    Hello

    Thank you for posting in Q&A forum.

    In the default situation(NT5DS), all the pc which join domain which sync time with DC, DC will sync time with PDC. All you need is set a target ip at PDC. It doesn’t need you to do anything on DC or client side.

    How the Windows Time Service Works | Microsoft Learn

    If in your environment，w32time doesn’t work， please restory all the setting you made to default to see if everything will back work fine

    To set the PDC. You can set the command as below:

    w32tm /config /manualpeerlist:time.windows.com,0x9 /syncfromflags:manual /update

    W32tm /config /update

    Windows Time service tools and settings | Microsoft Learn

    Best regards

    Yanhong

    =====================================

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