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In a Windows 2003 domain, I have 7 members servers that are Windows Server 2008 R2. I need to make it so that they sync time with the PDC emulator at least every 15 minutes or less if possible. Is this possible?

MDMarra
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Christian
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1 Answers1

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You can do this one of two ways:

Registry & 0x1 flag

As detailed here, if you set the 0x1 flag using w32tm, you can change SpecialPollInterval located in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\TimeProviders\NtpClient to however many seconds you want. For 15 minutes, it would be 900 seconds.

Scheduled Task

Alternatively, you can create a scheduled task that runs w32tm /resync every 15 minutes on the target computers. I strongly recommend this over the other option. It's much less complex and can easily be applied via GPO using the Scheduled Tasks Group Policy Preferences item.

MDMarra
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  • thanks for your answer! could you plase tell how set SpecialInterval 0x1 flag with wt32tm command? – Christian Nov 16 '11 at 20:17
  • To do that, you have to specify a manual peer list. This is bad if you change server names, replace the existing PDC Emulator, or do any number of other things. I strongly recommend option 2. I'll edit my question to reflect this. – MDMarra Nov 16 '11 at 20:28
  • You could always setup a CNAME record in DNS that you update when you make changes to the FSMO roles. It would be silly to specify the names of specific servers directly, so you use ntp.example.org, instead of naming the DC directly. – Zoredache Nov 16 '11 at 20:38
  • You can also do this via GPO `Computer Settings -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Windows Time Service -> Global Configuration Settings` – Zypher Nov 16 '11 at 20:40
  • @Zypher Interesting, I didn't know that was there. – MDMarra Nov 16 '11 at 20:44
  • I didn't either until someone at my last job set that to something ridiculous (like check once every 2 days) and MANUALLY skewed the time by 5 mins with it too ... grrrr – Zypher Nov 16 '11 at 20:49
  • EVERYONE LEAVES 5 MINUTES EARLY! – MDMarra Nov 16 '11 at 20:56
  • I have two CNAME for two Ntp server! I'll use w32tn and the peerlist with 0x1 flag for all two Cname for redundancy! Thank you all! – Christian Nov 17 '11 at 06:25