• Home
• » technology » microsoft » Windows time service on domain controllers

Windows time service on domain controllers

We moved a new server into the PDC emulator role of a 2003 AD forest. This new DC wasn’t keeping time correctly which was effecting the entire forest so I found a few links and commands that helped me get things syncing again.

Here are the two commands that helped me set the PDC emulator to sync with an external source:

 w32tm /config /computer:<<PDC-FQDN>> /manualpeerlist:time.windows.com /syncfromflags:manual /update 

w32tm /config /computer:<<PDC-FQDN>> /syncfromflags:domhier /update

To synchronize the domain controller with an external time source

1. Click Start, and then click Command Prompt.
2. In the Command Prompt window, type the following line, where peers is a comma-separated list of IP addresses of the appropriate time sources, and press ENTER:
   w32tm /config /manualpeerlist: peers /syncfromflags:MANUAL
   The time sources you choose depend on your time zone. For example, if your domain controller is located in the Pacific Time zone, this line might read:
   w32tm /config /manualpeerlist:131.107.1.10 /syncfromflags:MANUAL
   In this example, the IP address of the timeserver is used instead of the fully qualified domain name for security purposes.
3. Press ENTER. You should get a message that the command completed successfully.
4. Type w32tm /config /update
5. Press ENTER. You should get a message that the command completed successfully.
   W32time uses a variable poll interval based on the quality of timesync with the server. On DCs, this interval defaults to between 64 and 1024 seconds.
6. To immediately synchronize with the external time server, type w32tm /resync and press ENTER. You should get a message that the command completed successfully.
7. Type Exit and press ENTER.

I found this information from

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd723673(WS.10).aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc784553(WS.10).aspx

Related posts:

1. Two ways to set the time to the PDC emulator
2. Daylight Saving Time – Windows Mobile Fix
3. Best Practice Tips for Windows Server 2003 Cluster Service (MSCS)
4. Can you rename a Windows 2003 Domain?
5. Five command line tools to detect Windows hacks

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.