Fixing NTP time in Windows Server 2019

Operating Systems & Open Source Windows
1

I can’t figure this out and google is no help.
We have two DCs. DC0 and DC1. DC1 is the primary.
DC0 is set to sync with time.nist.gov. If I open Internet Time Setting and hit “Update now” it syncs just fine.

The same process fails on DC1. All is states is “An error has occured while Windows was synchronizing with time.nist.gov.”

Changing to a different time server, like windows.time.com doesn’t fix it, but on DC0 it works.

I’m also not filly understanding how the setting above ties in with w32tm. It seems like I can set NTP servers via CMD, but they still don’t sync, and it doesn’t change the “Internet Time Settings” if I go through GUI.

I’m trying to set DC1 as the time server for the whole domain. I wasn’t the one to set it up originally, so there may be settings that were changed that I’m not aware of.

2

Are you getting a specific error code? You may see something in event viewer that can help narrow down what’s going on. My guess is the DC is having some sort of networking issue.

3

if i was a betting man i would say it is 1 of 2 possibilities.

  1. the timezone on the failing server is set incorrectly.

  2. DNS is manually pointing somewhere weird.

4

It’s likely that DC0 is holding the PDC role - and as such is the authoritative time source for the domain. DC1 will then synchronise time from it automatically rather than using an external source.

Have a look through In Sync: Proper Time Configuration in AD - Ravenswood Technology Group

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5

that will not cause the sync attempts to fail.

6

I have sync fail if the NTP server is defined in group policy and I set it to something else in Windows settings, but this is on Win 10 22H2 so I’m not sure if I can say the same for Windows Server.

@vlad76 Worth checking the NTP server defined in group policy for DC1, and make sure it aligns with the server you specified in Windows settings.

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7

DCs are ‘usually’ excluded from group policy. They may still get user policy depending on the configuration.

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