How to enabe ntp statistics

This document (7012021) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 2

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 1
SLES

Situation

How to enabe ntp statistics

Error in ntp log

20 Mar 15:24:21 ntpd[11158]: can't open /ntpstats/peerstats.20120320: Permission denied

Resolution

Edit the /etc/ntp/conf

unrem the following lines (remove #)

and add the statistics line

Create the /ntpstats directory at /var/lib/ntp/ntpstats" owned by "ntp". This directory can be a symbolic link to somewhere beneath /var/lib/ntp.

Example:

statistics loopstats peerstats clockstats

statsdir /ntpstats/ # directory for statistics files

filegen peerstats file peerstats type day enable

filegen loopstats file loopstats type day enable

filegen clockstats file clockstats type day enable

mkdir /var/lib/ntp/ntpstats

chown ntp:ntp /var/lib/ntp/ntpstats

If Apparmor is enabled set the ntp profile to complain

aa-complain places a profile into complain mode. aa-complain /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.ntpd

or use YaST

If the ntp service needs to remain as enforce then in the /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.ntpd make the ntpstats and files in the ntpstats rwl

/var/lib/ntp/ntpstats rwl,

/var/lib/ntp/ntpstats/loopstats* rwl,

/var/lib/ntp/ntpstats/peerstats* rwl,

Cause

ntpd is chrooted to /var/lib/ntp/

For the default configuration for SLES the chroot for ntp is /var/lib/ntp

To verify this do ps -ef | grep ntpd and look for the -c <conf file> which will point to the conf file. The directory path before the -c (conf file) is the chroot for ntpd

Example for output for this command

/usr/sbin/ntpd -p /var/run/ntp/ntpd.pid -g -u ntp:ntp -i /var/lib/ntp -c /etc/ntp.conf

Additional Information

Popular options are

peerstats - Record peer statistics with one line appended to the peerstats file set each NTP packet or reference clock update
loopstats - Record clock discipline loop statistics . One line is appended to the loopstats file set each system clock update
clockstats - Record reference clock statistics with one line appended to the clockstats file set each update received from a reference clock driver
sysstats - Record system statistics with one line appended to the sysstats file each hour

Example:

statistics loopstats peerstats clockstats sysstats

statsdir /ntpstats/ # directory for statistics files

filegen peerstats file peerstats type day enable

filegen loopstats file loopstats type day enable

filegen clockstats file clockstats type day enable
filegen sysstats file sysstats type day enable

Disclaimer

This Support Knowledgebase provides a valuable tool for SUSE customers and parties interested in our products and solutions to acquire information, ideas and learn from one another. Materials are provided for informational, personal or non-commercial use within your organization and are presented "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND.