Xntpd Installation for Linux/Alpha

On the master node:

xntp3-5.93.alpha.rpm (from the RedHat 5.1 CD) must be installed. The files installed on the machine are here.
xntpd is configured to get the time from 129.89.7.3 and broadcast to the slaves via 192.168.2.255 as shown in the configuration file /etc/ntp.conf listed here.
/etc/rc.d/init.d/xntpd must be slightly modified so that xntpd will write a log file. This file has been chosen to be /var/log/xntpd.log
ntpdate does not seem to function under Linux/Alpha (thus one of the modifications in /etc/rc.d/init.d/xntpd), so keep the boot-up script S99rdate (recall: this script occurs in runlevels 3 and 5). However, the internal clock should be set before starting xntpd. Move S99rdate to S98rdate and create the following links:

/etc/rc.d/rc[3,5].d/S99xntpd -> /etc/rc.d/init.d/xntpd

xntpd must also be killed when the machine is shut down; therefore, create the following link:

/etc/rc.d/rc6.d/K08xntpd -> /etc/rc.d/init.d/xntpd

xntpd is now configured to run on the master node.

For slave nodes:

The files listed here were copied to the appropriate locations in /nfsr/nfsr5.1

IMPORTANT: /etc/ntp.conf for the slaves is different than for the master since the slaves are only configured to be broadcast clients listening to 192.168.2.255 so don't forget to modify it after copying it to the nfsr directories!

The start-up and kill script links created above for the master are also created in the nfsr directories. S99rdate is moved to S98rdate, as well.
To copy the files onto the slaves, either reclone the slaves or write a script which tells each slave to remotely copy only the necessary files.

IMPORTANT: xntpd is rather picky when it comes to bringing clocks into sync when they are already fairly out of whack...no estimate on exactly what out of whack means. xntpd will die in this case; therefore, it is good policy to set the local clock from your ntp server prior to starting xntpd. This would be 129.89.7.3 in the case of the master and 192.168.2.1 for slaves.