Network Time Protocol Server to Update

On Sunday, June 21, Telecommunications and Network Services plans to migrate the Network Time Protocol (NTP) server to a dedicated IP address to enhance the University's computer clock synchronization service. The upgrade will improve availability of NTP itself and allow for reliability improvements.

Currently, the NTP service is reachable via the domain name time.northwestern.edu and its alias, time.it.northwestern.edu, which currently resolves to the IP address 129.105.49.1.

Machines that synchronize their time via the names time.northwestern.edu or time.it.northwestern.edu will be unaffected by this change. Machines that acquire their time via the IP address 129.105.49.1 or the hostname accuvax.northwestern.edu will no longer be able to synchronize time via NTP once the change takes place.

On June 21, the time.northwestern.edu and time.it.northwestern.edu domain names will be directed to new NTP servers. Machines that can only configure one server to query for time updates should use one of the above names. Machines that can configure multiple servers can use the names time1.northwestern.edu and time2.northwestern.edu. Machines that cannot accept hostnames may utilize either of the IP addresses that these names resolve to. However, IP addresses should only be used when it is not possible to enter a hostname. If a machine is currently using an IP address for NTP and can be configured with a hostname, please use an appropriate hostname going forward. Machines should be updated to the above configurations before June 21.