SUMMARY: NTP

Thanks to all who replied as usual I had an almost instant flow of answers
and suggestions from the list.

Originally I had asked about the differences between using ntpdate via cron
or running xntpd.  The reason I asked was that I felt as if xntpd would be a
more accurate way of keeping the clock in sync but I did not want to run
another service on the box if ntpdate would get the same job done.  

What some people pointed out was that xntpd will in fact do a better job
because in addition to checking with the time servers listed in
/etc/inet/ntp.conf, xntpd will also have a memory of the drift that the
clock is experiencing and will adjust in between polls of the time server
keeping your clock in sync all the time.  I think this could be accomodated
with the ntpdate solution by running it from cron more frequently so either
way is going to keep your clock in sync with the correct time.  It was also
pointed out that wither way you go you should use as many times servers as
possible.  You can list mulitple servers in your ntp.conf file or on the
command line with ntpdate.  Here are a couple of resources that were pointed
out to me.

	http://www.sun.com/blueprints/
	http://www.sun.com/blueprints/browsesubject.html#operatenv  see 3
part series on NTP
	http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~ntp/

Thanks,
Brett

________________________________________________________________
Original Post


Could someone help me understand what the differences would be between
running:

	ntpdate -Bs ntpserver

from cron on a periodic (1/day or 1/hour) basis and just running xntpd.  I
think it would give the same effect but I'm not totally sure.  Thanks
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