Re: Setting Unix System Time fools Informix

Greg McClure wrote: > > We are running Informix 7.20.UC2 on two DEC Prioris machines running SCO > 3.2.5.0. We are running with DRAUTO=2. Normal state is one machine On-line > Primary, the other Secondary. When we change the time on one of the Unix > boxes, Informix decides to make both machines Primary. Informix support say > this is something which cannot be avoided as the system time is exchanged > in the ping packets between the machines, and discrepancies will be > interpreted as one machine going down. > > My question is: Does anyone have a workaround for this problem ? We need to > attach our machines to a Time of Day Clock source from a satellite receiver > ! > > Greg McClure (CEM Systems Ltd) gmcclure@devel.cemsys.com I think you need to look into the Internet Time Server protocol (or something to that effect). It is designed to allow a machine to be designated as an accurate source, which puts out periodic timing packets, and the other machines very gradually (less than 100 ms at a time) alter their time to sync up. There was an article on this in one of the Unix trade mags - I'll get the specifics if I can find it.