Keeping time properly

One of the things that people don't think a lot about is time. We sort of assume that it is correct. One of the reasons is that it is a basic service just like say DNS. I often see though people setting up networks and servers without thinking about setting up time keeping. There is a simple service that can be installed on all Linux servers for making sure time is synchronized between all the servers. 

Each organization needs to think through their particular time infrastructure. But there is a good basic way to lay out your time strategy that will fit for most people. There are atomic clocks at different public organizations. A good example is the Naval Oberservatory in Washington DC. They track time to like the milliseconds or nanoseconds or something like that. In your organization then set up two or three time servers that have network access to the public time source like the observatory. If you have multiple data centers you would set up two or three servers in each data center. Then inside the data center you would point all the other servers to the time servers in your data center. As long as you are only a couple layers deep or so then your time on all your systems will be spot on. Your Windows workstations will then get their time from the domain controllers on your network. As long as your domain controllers are picking up time from your time servers your workstations will be properly synchronized as well. 

Now everyone will be happy. Services will work properly. And you will be on time to all your meetings.