On Sun, 24 Oct 2010 11:34:12 -0400 Brandon Kim <brandon.kim@brandontek.com> wrote:
I wanted to open up this question regarding NTP server. I recalled someone had created a posting of this quite awhile back.
From a service provider/ISP standpoint, does anyone think that having a local NTP server is really necessary?
It's not strictly necessary, but I think any serious and reasonably-sized ISP should probably have their own set of time sources. This thread might be useful to review for some suggestions, but in particular Michael's comments are relevant: <http://listserv.educause.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0809&L=SECURITY&T=0&F=&S=&P=102171>
1) How necessary do you believe in local NTP servers? Do you really need the logs to be perfectly accurate? 2) If you do have a local NTP server, is it only for local internal use, or do you provide this NTP server to your clients as an added service? 3) If you do have a local NTP server, do you have a standby local NTP server or do you use the internet as your standby server?
The "perfect accuracy" of log files might be hard to justify and quantify. I'd say it's more about having your own trustworthy and reliable source that you can ensure is operational, reachable and correct. That said, it is perfectly fine and probably useful to use external sources in addition to your own for backup and time redundancy in your design. You probably don't need to provide time to your customers unless you have a good reason to do so or they've been asking, which I'd find surprising these days for new installations. The default Microsoft time service and the pool.ntp.org servers probably work fine for the majority of end users. We have some NTP configuration templates here if it helps any: <http://www.team-cymru.org/ReadingRoom/Templates/> John