LINUX: How To Check NTP Settings (NTP Servers Being Used, Poll, Delay, Offset, Jitter) on Linux Host? (How To Doc) ("ntpq" command)

Below command can be used to check NTP Settings on Linux host.

ntpq -p

Below is sample output of above command.

     remote           refid      st t when poll reach   delay   offset  jitter
=============================================================
ntpserver1.com    10.30.30.1      4 u  536 1024  377    7.470   -0.414   5.884
*ntpserver2.com   10.30.30.2      4 u  477 1024  377    6.701    4.599   5.964
ntpserver3.com   10.30.30.2      4 u  477 1024  377    6.701    4.599   5.964

From above output below is short description of each

• remote -remote NTP servers from which time is retrieved.
  
  The line with * highlighted in bold is the NTP server in use.
• refid - The IP under the refid is the IP from which the ntpserver is retrieving the time.
• st - server’s stratum which shows how close the NTP server. Lower the number, the closer NTP server is.
• t - refers to the type, specifically whether the server is using unicast (u), broadcast (b), multicast (m), or manycast.
• when -  how long ago it was since the last time the server was polled
• poll - how often the server will be polled
• reach - contains the results of the most recent eight NTP updates.  If all eight are successful, this field will read 377. This number is in octal, so eight successes in octal will be represented by 377
• delay  - delay in reaching the server
• offset - difference between the local clock and the server’s clock
• jitter - network latency between local server and NTP servers.

Products to which Article Applies

All Linux environments

Additional References

https://www.thegeekdiary.com/what-is-the-refid-in-ntpq-p-output/

tarun boyella