NTP

NTP (Network Time Protocol) is a protocol to synchronize the clocks between various computers (read more at its WIkipedia page). In the CSL we currently run two NTP servers, which coincidentally are also the FreeIPA servers.

Configuration

This should be automatically handled when you join a machine to FreeIPA. You can copy an NTP configuration file from any NTP client to /etc/chrony/chrony.conf or /etc/chrony.conf (depending on the OS) and run systemctl restart chronyd.

Troubleshooting

systemctl status chronyd is complaining about being unable to reach the NTP server. What should I do?

Make sure that you can reach the server's NTP ports. Running nc ntp1.tjhsst.edu 123 should return the current time. If it does not connect, something is wrong with the machine's connection to the NTP servers.