Install and Configure NTP Server (Network Time Protocol) on Debian 8
Understanding and Functions of NTP Server (Network Time Protocol)
NTP or Network Time Protocol is a protocol which is used to make several computers or network devices that are in the same network can have the same time (date and time) with each other.
NTP server is very useful for a company, government agency, school, or any institution that requires each of their devices to have the same time or synchronize with one another.
Moreover, if an institution with a large scale, the NTP server is very helpful for a person System Administrators. With the NTP server, an System Administrator no need to set the time individually on each device.
In the process of sending and receiving data to synchronize time, the NTP server uses User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and running on port 123. NTP (Network Time Protocol) was designed by David L. Mills. Since its operation before 1985, NTP is one of the protocol oldest still in use today.
NTP (Network Time Protocol) is usually used in network topologies with architecture client server, where on the server running NTP server that has been installed and the time has been configured as desired, while client just need to synchronize the time from that server.
However, NTP can also run on networks with architectures peer to peer where at the time of each device will be considered to be a source of timing to be used.
Installing NTP (Network Time Protocol) Packages on Debian 8
Before installing and starting to configure the NTP server on Debian 8. Make sure you have set network interfaces or settings IP address on the server computer as desired.
It would be even better, if the server computer has already installed the DNS server and DHCP server packages. You can follow the previous tutorial to configure DNS and DHCP server. With a DHCP server you don’t need to set up IP address manually on the computer client in order to connect to the server computer. Meanwhile, with the DNS server, you can synchronize the time by using the domain.
If you have done the required configuration, at least set it up network interfaces or IP settings addresses.
The first step in configuring the NTP server is to install the package used for the NTP server. On Debian, the package used to run the NTP server is “ntp”.
Install the ntp package on Debian with the following command:
apt-get install ntp
Make sure the installation process is completed successfully. After the installation of the ntp package is successful, we will continue the NTP server configuration process
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