How to configure NTP time synchronization on a server?

I would like to configure my Ubuntu 12.04 server to synchronize its clock with a specific NTP server. Where to set this up?

Solution 1:

Installation

or if you prefer command line ...

sudo apt-get install ntp

Configuration

sudo nano /etc/ntp.conf

This file will probably have the default Ubuntu server activated. You can check http://www.pool.ntp.org/zone/europe or http://www.pool.ntp.org/zone/north-america or http://www.pool.ntp.org/zone/asia for local (country based) servers. Just comment out all of the servers by adding a # in front of it and add in the one you want to use.

Activating the new changes

sudo service ntp restart

Checking if it synchs

sudo ntpq -c lpeer

This will show a list of all the servers and when they where last checked. Random example from the web:

See logging

sudo tail -f /var/log/syslog

Do make sure, if you are using a firewall, to open UDP 123.

Solution 2:

First, make sure that you have NTP installed, just press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open Terminal. When it opens, run the command below.

sudo apt-get install ntp

Then edit the file below to add time servers.

sudo nano /etc/ntp.conf

To add time-servers to synchronize with, use USA Servers or Europe Servers.

Then, restart NTP service

sudo service ntp restart