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Table of contents
Symptom & Impact
Clock drift and sync flapping cause authentication and scheduling inconsistencies.
Environment & Reproduction
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS host where chrony and systemd-timesyncd are both configured over time.
Root Cause Analysis
Multiple NTP clients attempt to control clock discipline, resulting in unstable synchronization behavior.
Quick Triage
Review timedatectl status, systemctl status chrony, and systemctl status systemd-timesyncd.
Step-by-Step Diagnosis
Determine active synchronization owner and inspect recent offset trends in service logs.
Solution – Primary Fix
Choose one time daemon, disable the other service, then verify stable synchronized state.
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Solution – Alternative Approaches
Use chrony for servers requiring advanced source controls and maintain timesyncd for simple endpoints.
Verification & Acceptance Criteria
timedatectl reports synchronized yes consistently and no large offsets appear in logs.
Rollback Plan
Re-enable the previously used daemon if new time service selection introduces compatibility issues.
Prevention & Hardening
Enforce a single approved NTP service profile per host role in provisioning standards.
Related Errors & Cross-Refs
Kerberos and TLS validation anomalies often track back to unstable or drifting system time.
Related tutorial: View the step-by-step tutorial for Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.
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References & Further Reading
Ubuntu time synchronization practices for chrony and systemd-timesyncd.
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