Configuring Windows 2008 R2 as an NTP Server

In order to configure an Windows 2008 R2 Server as a time server in a non-domain environment you will need to make a number of changes to the registry.  This tutorial will show you both the settings for configuring the NTP Server in addition to the client settings.

NOTES

It is worth noting that this example is based on the below,

  1. A Windows 2008 R2 Server acting as the NTP Server
  2. A Windows 2008 R2 Server acting as the NTP client for which it will source its time from the above server.
  3. This configuration based upon not using a Windows Domain.

NTP SERVER

SERVER SETTINGS

1. Enable the NTP Server

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\TimeProviders\NtpServer]”
“Enabled”=dword:00000001

CLIENT SETTINGS

1. Enable NTP Client and set polling interval.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\TimeProviders\NtpClient]”
“Enabled”=dword:00000001
“SpecialPollInterval”=”300”

2. Configure the NTP Time Source, period and frequency

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Parameters]
“NtpServer”=”[NTP SERVER IP],0x1”
“Type”=”NTP”
“Period”=”freq”

NTP CLIENT

CLIENT SETTINGS

1. Enable NTP Client and set polling interval.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\TimeProviders\NtpClient]”
“Enabled”=dword:00000001
“SpecialPollInterval”=”300”

2. Configure the NTP Time Source, period and frequency

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Parameters]
“NtpServer”=”[NTP SERVER IP],0x1”
“Type”=”NTP”
“Period”=”freq”

ADDITIONAL

STARTUP

By default the w32tm service will not automatically start if your Windows machine is not on a domain. To ensure that the service starts automatically run the following command :

sc triggerinfo w32time start/networkon stop/networkoff

TROUBLESHOOTING

To confirm that your clients are correctly peering with your time source run the following command.

w32tm /query /peers

“NtpServer”=”[NTP SERVER IP],0x1”