How hard is it to get timestamps right?

[anonymous-user]

[redacted]

[LordGrover]

Seems to be syncing errors across servers. Been happening for a week or so.

[saaby93]

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

I saw it too a couple days back - I think it was a couple of posts in this forum
The posts have same time stamp but as theyre in minutes the wrong one appears at the front
It's probably getting the wrong order with the hidden seconds

[Dom_PH]

Hi midenginedcoupe,

Thanks for you feedback, I have noted this down to be investigated.

Thanks,
Dom

[james_gt3rs]

There also appears to be a timing issue with "My Stuff", where if you look at a page which has been updated (say last comment 16:08). You then scroll down the page and read the last post. Then click My Stuff, and the thread is highlighted as if there is a new post you haven't read (at 16:08). But the thread isn't new and clicking on it gives you the same result (last comment 16:08).

[RacingPete]

The web servers had lost connection with the Internet Time for syncing, and thus were 1 min 12 seconds different causing this issue.

We have reset them to put them back in line.
Will fix the sync issue with Internet Time
Change the underlying code to enter the Posted Time from the database, instead of relying on the web servers, so it is from a single consistent source.

[TonyRPH]

RacingPete said:

The web servers had lost connection with the Internet Time for syncing, and thus were 1 min 12 seconds different causing this issue.

We have reset them to put them back in line.
Will fix the sync issue with Internet Time
Change the underlying code to enter the Posted Time from the database, instead of relying on the web servers, so it is from a single consistent source.

If you are using virtualisation then simply sync them with the host (the host should always have internet connectivity to talk to NTP servers).

If not using virtualisation, then why not make your DB server an NTP server as well, and use that as a reference?

Assuming it's running on decent hardware, and it has internet connectivity, then it should remain in sync.

If you have more than one reliable server, then set that one up as a secondary NTP server.

You don't need to be stratum 1 (or even 2)

I run one here at home:

root@nas:~# ntpq -p
     remote           refid      st t when poll reach   delay   offset  jitter
==============================================================================
+ns1.luns.net.uk 33.117.170.50    2 u  102 1024  377   26.765    0.278   0.156
+lyla.preshweb.c 129.215.42.240   3 u 1042 1024  377   19.888    0.096   0.266
*ntp2.wirehive.n 81.2.117.235     2 u  291 1024  377   20.662   -0.088   0.548
-149.18.85.102.b 131.188.3.221    2 u  425 1024  377   19.712   -1.182   0.435

[RacingPete]

to all for their help.

This issue is now fixed and the server time is sorted. The code to fix this permanently will be going live in the next month.