NTP Server in ASUSTOR NAS for Clients

[ivorneo]

How to install NTP Server on ASUSTOR so my windows Clients can sync time from this ASUSTOR NAS.

[MikeG.6.5]

I'm not sure why anyone would want to. These services are available for free already. Why go through the steps to make one for a NAS? The NAS would have to check it's time against the same authority other computers are already using to set their times/zones/dates, etc.

[AlexanderJesse]

A possible reason might be that one does not want to permit the windows-clients to connect to the outside world for security reasons. Another one might be test environments where you want to control the time (allow special time situation like month end,...). With a "local" NTP-server such a special time setting might be easier to realize.

[MikeG.6.5]

Let me ask, is there anyone using the dedicated DHCP server with their NAS yet? Has anyone even tested it yet, outside of the lab? I haven't seen much comment on the forums about this feature, other than requests made several months ago. I would have expected by now there would be some comment on how it works, whether it's completely functional, what the limits of the scope and ease of use are for setting static IP's, Subnet Masks, default gateways, routing tables, etc. Almost everyone has this function built into their router or broadband modem already. Do these features work on Asustor's NASes? Who knows? Most of us will never have a need to find out.

I had thought of those particular use cases already. And there are ways to do those same things already available. Most good routers support being an NTP server as well as a client. There are apps for spoofing the real time for testing or end of year/month etc.

I guess I look at the bugs Asustor has with some of it's apps and in the OS itself and I see something like this as a niche request that very few would ever use in comparison. Fix the night modes, and sleep modes. Mix the missing library support for Python, Perl and OpenVPN. Get HTML 5 working instead of relying on Java in the ADM. Fix the Surveillance System so any browsers and the dedicated mobile apps can be used to check on cameras. Update Kodi to the latest builds. Develop the HW acceleration for transcoding with ffmpeg across all models Asustor has made.

These aren't niche items. These items impact a lot of users. I don't really see a dedicated NTP server within those situations you outline or in any other situations benefitting more than a few people under very specific and rare conditions.

But what do I know about it...

[callifo]

If you install IPKG from the apps store, you can then install ntpd using 'ipkg install ntp' from the CLI.

You'll need to create your own config file and then a start-up script to start it on boot. Also turn off time sync in the control panel as it just uses a 30 minute cronjob doing a rough hack using ntpdate.