windows server time lag

Question

Hello,

I have encountered strange issue since long time on my windows server 2008 r2 domain controller which is PDC in my organization, need to upgrade after some time to win 2016.

Meanwhile I want to focus on this issue, server time keeps lagging after every few days (since 3 years), I mean suppose the current time is 10:30:26, after a week the server time at the same time will show 10:30:12 i.e. the time has lagged by 14 seconds after a week. I again need to set the time manually and the same thing happens after a week. Suppose I haven't set the time manually, after a a month or so the time will lag by 1-2 minutes which is creating problem for some sensitive time dependent applications. The server doesn't have any heavy application installed, it's primary objective is to provide DNS service and group policies in a set up of more than 2000 client workstations.

This is my PDC from where all the clients sync the time.

Tried all the ways to troubleshoot this, even checked the time in BIOS but the BIOS time is perfect.

I wonder what could be the issue and how do I solve it?

Any perfect response will be appreciated, thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Hello @Mirza Safiullah Baig ,

Thank you for posting here.

1.Do other DCs in the same domain except PDC have such issue?
2.Do other workstations and member servers in the same domain have such issue?
3.Did you configure the time on PDC server with reliable external NTP time server or not?
If so, not sure if the issue is related to tme on external NTP time server? We can try to check time on external NTP time server when the issue reoccurs.

For how to configure the time synchronization in AD, we can refer to the link below.
Time Synchronization in Active Directory Forests
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/18573.time-synchronization-in-active-directory-forests.aspx

How the Windows Time Service Works
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-server-2003/cc773013(v=ws.10)?redirectedfrom=MSDN

If anything is unclear, please feel free to let us know.

Best Regards,
Daisy Zhou

Answer 2

Some general info

• All domain members should use NT5DS domain time.
• Desktops and member servers sync with any domain controller.
• Domain controllers sync with PDC emulator (one per domain)
• PDC emulator in child domain can sync with any domain controller in parent domain.
• PDC emulator in parent domain syncs with either a hardware clock or possibly an external source.
  https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/nepapfe/2013/03/01/its-simple-time-configuration-in-active-directory/

On your PDCe you can;

w32tm /unregister
net stop w32time
w32tm /register
net start w32time
w32tm /config /manualpeerlist:<ntp ip address> /syncfromflags:manual /reliable:yes /update
net stop w32time
net start w32time
then check
w32tm /query /source
w32tm /query /configuration

(some NTP servers to choose from here)
https://tf.nist.gov/tf-cgi/servers.cgi

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Answer 3

@Mirza Safiullah Baig

Configure NTP service follow below steps.

To configure the Windows Time service for the forest root primary domain controller (PDC) emulator, see:

Configure the Windows Time service on the PDC emulator in the Forest Root Domain

refer the below url
https://www.faqforge.com/windows-server-2016/configure-ntp-server-windows-server-2016/

https://www.checkyourlogs.net/windows-time-sync-the-fixes/

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/networking/windows-time-service/windows-time-service-tools-and-settings

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Answer 4

thanks for the reply.
It's on physical server

Answer 5

@Mirza Safiullah Baig

I required few more details is the server running in physical hardware or VM?