Comment 0 for bug 1257082

I have tried setting up NTP servers as DHCP options to MAAS nodes because I am behind a proxy here at work that cannot contact ntp.ubuntu.com. Here is the top of the dhcpd.conf file on on my MAAS head node, maas01:

root@maas01:/etc/dhcp# less dhcpd.conf
default-lease-time 600;
max-lease-time 7200;

subnet 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.0.0 {
  option domain-name "mgmt";
  option domain-name-servers 192.168.255.254;
  option routers 192.168.255.254;

  pool {
    range 192.168.0.1 192.168.255.253;
    deny unknown-clients;
  }
}

subnet 10.255.0.0 netmask 255.255.0.0 {
  option domain-name "maas";
  option domain-name-servers 10.255.0.1;
  option routers 10.255.0.1;
  option ntp-servers 172.31.22.1, 172.31.23.1, 172.31.20.104;
  next-server 10.255.0.1;

  pool {
    range 10.255.1.0 10.255.255.254;
    deny unknown-clients;
  }
}

I have also verified the parameter is being sent to a client’s DHCP lease:

ubuntu@sled204n0:/var$ cat /var/lib/dhcp/dhclient.eth0.leases
lease {
  interface "eth0";
  fixed-address 10.255.4.44;
  option subnet-mask 255.255.0.0;
  option routers 10.255.0.1;
  option dhcp-lease-time 600;
  option dhcp-message-type 5;
  option domain-name-servers 10.255.0.1;
  option dhcp-server-identifier 10.255.0.1;
  option ntp-servers 172.31.22.1,172.31.23.1,172.31.20.104;
  option domain-name "maas";
  renew 4 2000/01/06 19:40:51;
  rebind 4 2000/01/06 19:40:51;
  expire 4 2000/01/06 19:40:51;
}

Even so, the date on the target node is still incorrect.

ubuntu@sled204n0:/etc$ date
Thu Jan 6 19:52:29 UTC 2000

The ntpdate defaults are the following (unchanged from MAAS defaults):

ubuntu@sled204n0:/etc$ cat /etc/default/ntpdate
# The settings in this file are used by the program ntpdate-debian, but not
# by the upstream program ntpdate.

# Set to "yes" to take the server list from /etc/ntp.conf, from package ntp,
# so you only have to keep it in one place.
NTPDATE_USE_NTP_CONF=yes

# List of NTP servers to use (Separate multiple servers with spaces.)
# Not used if NTPDATE_USE_NTP_CONF is yes.
NTPSERVERS="ntp.ubuntu.com"

# Additional options to pass to ntpdate
NTPOPTIONS=""

And the DHCP generated NTP server file is correct:

ubuntu@sled204n0:/etc$ cat /var/lib/ntpdate/default.dhcp
# NTP server entries received from DHCP server
NTPSERVERS='172.31.22.1 172.31.23.1 172.31.20.104'

The culprit seems to be in how ntpdate-debian is programmed. the logic ignores /var/lib/ntpdate/default.dhcp if /etc/default/ntpdate sets NTPDATE_USE_NTP_CONF=yes (the default).

After examining the script further my recommendation would be for the /etc/dhcp/dhclient-exit-hooks.d/ntpdate to create the file /var/lib/ntp/ntp.conf.dhcp. By doing so ntpdate-debian will work transparently with /etc/defaults/ntpdate and NTP servers advertised by DHCPD.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
(contents of /var/log/maas/* is 125MB in size, will post data from there if requested)

# dpkg -l '*maas*'|cat
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Architecture Description
+++-==================================-======================================-============-==========================================================================
ii maas 1.3+bzr1461+dfsg-0ubuntu2.2+tay.8 all Ubuntu MAAS Server
ii maas-cli 1.3+bzr1461+dfsg-0ubuntu2.2+tay.8 all Ubuntu MAAS Client Tool
ii maas-cluster-controller 1.3+bzr1461+dfsg-0ubuntu2.2+tay.8 all Ubuntu MAAS Cluster Controller
ii maas-common 1.3+bzr1461+dfsg-0ubuntu2.2+tay.8 all Ubuntu MAAS Server
un maas-dhcp <none> (no description available)
un maas-dns <none> (no description available)
ii maas-region-controller 1.3+bzr1461+dfsg-0ubuntu2.2+tay.8 all Ubuntu MAAS Server
ii python-django-maas 1.3+bzr1461+dfsg-0ubuntu2.2+tay.8 all Ubuntu MAAS Server - (django files)
ii python-maas-client 1.3+bzr1461+dfsg-0ubuntu2.2+tay.8 all Ubuntu MAAS API Client - (python files)
ii python-maas-provisioningserver 1.3+bzr1461+dfsg-0ubuntu2.2+tay.8 all Ubuntu MAAS Server