RoPieee 2022.03 (0126) and NTP

Audio Gear Talk RoPieee
1

Hi,

I am seeing a lot of DNS traffic from my RoPieee devices. It seems every 12 secs the Ropieee is doing a NTP sync, by trying to contact 0.pool.ntp.org - 3.pool.ntp.org every 12 secs. That seems excessive.

I have a local DNS server and NTP server, so I am redirecting the DNS queries to my local NTP server.

For public NTP servers, the minpoll is suggested to be no less than 64secs.

So I have two suggestions or questions:

  • can we add a config for the used NTP servers/pool ?
  • can we add a config for the polling frequency, or at least ease up the current polling frequency ?

(one assumption is the dns query every 12secs is indicative for a ntp sync every 12secs)

I guess mostly for @spockfish

2

The answer to both questions would be ‘no’. Adding a parameter like this is not in line with the goals of RoPieee.

That being said… the 12s interval you mention is excessive and not good. And I also don’t understand it either. The default minpoll for ntpd is 6, which is 64 seconds (2^6).

I need to investigate it a bit. On my to do list is also a possible switch from ntpd to chronyd, so maybe I need to increase the prio :wink:

Thanks

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3

On the no → ok understand that also. One could keep going to add options.
I added a DNS log screenshot, here it is 14secs apart.

I am using an IPV6/IPV4 dual stack network, and maybe the IPV6 answers are messing with the NTP client in Ropieee.

Screenshot 2022-03-29 at 22.28.14
Screenshot 2022-03-29 at 22.28.142130×618 128 KB

4

I’m also running a dual stack. So I’ll have a look.
Disabling ipv6 on ntpd is a quick fix possibly.

5

Would honoring DHCP Option 42 (RFC 2132 - DHCP Options and BOOTP Vendor Extensions) be in line? I’ve got this configured on my network.

6

Yeah that’s on my list as well, at least to investigate.

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7

If DHCP options are an option, one could also check out option 101: “Reference to the TZ Database”
I have both option 42 and option 101 configured (and 102 too) via my Unifi server.

But understandable this might be overkill for Ropieee, since I hardly see any appliance adhere to options like these.

8

Well, in general I don’t mind ‘overkill’, as long as it happens automagically and is not something the user needs to think of. So if we can support things like this, without exposing it to the user (like with a setting for example) then it could be interesting.

Take for example the TZ thingie: for those that run RoPieee with a display there’s an option to set the timezone. If we can automate this because it is provided via DHCP … that might be cool.

Thanks

9

Option 100 - 101 in Unifi:

Screenshot 2022-03-30 at 10.29.51
Screenshot 2022-03-30 at 10.29.51784×202 32.6 KB

Screenshot 2022-03-30 at 10.30.17
Screenshot 2022-03-30 at 10.30.171214×188 23.5 KB

10

@Stef_van_Hooijdonk Small update: I’ve switched from ntpd to chrony and in that process looked into our discussion a little bit more.

So next release of RoPieee (this month, 2022.04) will support 101; automagically, only once on first installation.

I’ve got some stuff lying around for option 42, but that won’t make this release.

But I’m pretty convinced that in a few releases NTP is configured according your wishes, without the need to expose settings to the user (a must for RoPieee).

Regards,
Harry

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