Resolved System time not synchronizing

[MMagnani]

Hello,

I set Plesk to synchronize system time and then the ntpdate command was scheduled.

/usr/sbin/ntpdate -b -s some.ntp.server​

As the system time is not being updated, if I run the cron task from Plesk panel, the task returns an error and syslog shows:

Mar 15 22:05:15 server crontab[30665]: (root) LIST (root)
Mar 15 22:05:15 server ntpdate[30669]: the NTP socket is in use, exiting​

If I stop ntp service, the same task runs successfully and syslog shows:

Mar 15 22:06:21 server crontab[31024]: (root) LIST (root)
Mar 15 22:06:28 server systemd[1]: Time has been changed
Mar 15 22:06:28 server ntpdate[31028]: step time server xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx offset 0.000354 sec
Mar 15 22:06:28 server systemd[13977]: Time has been changed​

This way, should ntp service be kept always stopped?
If so, what is the proper way to do that?

Thank you!

 

[AYamshanov]

Hi MMagnani,

If your OS with systemd, then you can use `systemctl disable ntpd.service`

BUT! I can't understand why you want to disable ntpd and start to use ntpdate via crontab. Can you clarify your decision?

 

[IgorG]

If you want to execute ntpdate with the ntpd daemon already up and running, use the following command syntax:

# /usr/sbin/ntpdate -u some.ntp.server

 

[MMagnani]

Thanks, AYamshanov, IgorG

Adding the -u option to the ntpdate command as IgorG suggested solved the problem.