Get started
Yandex Compute Cloud

Configuring clock synchronization using NTP

You can sync virtual machines in Yandex.Cloud with public time servers via NTPv4:

  • For VMs running Windows Server, give three preferred servers in the time synchronization settings.

  • On Linux-based VMs, enable a DHCP client with option 42, Network Time Protocol Servers. This lets you automatically apply the list of sync servers sent by the DHCP server. In images provided by Yandex.Cloud, operating systems are already configured properly.

    In the system settings, specify the backup sync servers to use if the DHCP server goes down or is unavailable. To do this, follow the instructions.

Recommended sync servers:

The list of recommended servers may change. Yandex.Cloud notifies you 72 hours before you need to make changes to a VM configuration.

Setup

Alert

The systemd-timesyncd service may conflict with ntpd if they are running simultaneously. You can either delete the ntpd service or use it to set up time synchronization (in the next tab).

Specify backup servers in the system settings:

  1. List the backup servers in /etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf under [Time] in the FallbackNTP= parameter, for example:

    FallbackNTP=ntp0.NL.net clock.isc.org ntp2.vniiftri.ru ntps1-0.eecsit.tu-berlin.de ntp.ix.ru

  2. Set UseNTP=true in the systemd.network configuration file. It's usually located in the /etc/systemd/network or /var/lib/systemd/network directory.

  3. Restart the synchronization service:

    $ sudo systemctl restart systemd-timesyncd

Specify the addresses of the servers in the ntpd configuration:

  1. Specify the addresses of the recommended servers in /etc/ntp.conf. Comment out default server addresses with # at the beginning of the relevant line, for example:

    # Use servers from the NTP Pool Project. Approved by Ubuntu Technical Board
# on 2011-02-08 (LP: #104525). See http://www.pool.ntp.org/join.html for
# more information.
# server 0.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org
# server 1.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org
# server 2.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org
# server 3.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org
server ntp0.NL.net
server clock.isc.org
server ntp2.vniiftri.ru
server ntps1-0.eecsit.tu-berlin.de
server ntp.ix.ru

  2. Restart the service:

    $ sudo service ntp restart

Specify the recommended servers in the Windows Time service settings by running the following commands in PowerShell or cmd:

net stop w32time
w32tm /config /syncfromflags:manual /manualpeerlist:"ntp0.NL.net clock.isc.org ntp2.vniiftri.ru ntps1-0.eecsit.tu-berlin.de ntp.ix.ru"
w32tm /config /reliable:yes
net start w32time