FreeBSD 12 – Common Problem 023 – Conflicting Time Daemons Cause Unstable Clock

📖 ~1 min read

Table of contents

1. Symptom & Impact
2. Environment & Reproduction
3. Root Cause Analysis
4. Quick Triage
5. Step-by-Step Diagnosis
6. Solution – Primary Fix
7. Solution – Alternative Approaches
8. Verification & Acceptance Criteria
9. Rollback Plan
10. Prevention & Hardening
11. Related Errors & Cross-Refs
12. References & Further Reading

Symptom & Impact

Clock jumps forward/backward, affecting logs and authentication.

Environment & Reproduction

Hosts have both `ntpd` and `openntpd` installed and enabled.

Root Cause Analysis

Multiple daemons discipline the same clock source simultaneously.

Quick Triage

Check active daemons and startup flags.

service ntpd status
service openntpd status
sysrc -a | grep -E 'ntpd|openntpd'

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Confirm overlapping UDP/123 listeners and time adjustments.

sockstat -4 -6 | grep ':123'
ntpq -pn
rcorder /etc/rc.d/* | grep ntp

Solution – Primary Fix

Disable one daemon, keep one source of truth, and restart time service.

sysrc openntpd_enable='NO'
service openntpd stop
service ntpd restart

Solution – Alternative Approaches

If standardizing on `openntpd`, disable `ntpd` instead and adjust monitoring checks.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

Only one listener on UDP/123 and drift remains stable over monitoring window.

Rollback Plan

Re-enable prior daemon if compatibility requirement exists and disable the other.

Prevention & Hardening

Add config policy checks to prevent dual time daemon enablement.

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

Time oscillation, duplicate service warnings, authentication token validity errors.

Related tutorial: View the step-by-step tutorial for freebsd-12.

View all freebsd-12 tutorials on the Tutorials Hub →

Browse all common problems & solutions on the Tutorials Hub.

References & Further Reading

`ntpd(8)`, `openntpd(8)`, FreeBSD rc service management docs.