SG300 DNS resolution of a NTP server

[David Hornstein]

Two quereies

Query 1. The SG300 Administrative guide  states on page 55 that;

"Poll Interval—Select to enable polling of the SNTP server for system time information. All SNTP servers that are registered for polling are polled, and

the clock is selected from the server with the lowest stratum level (distance from the reference clock.) that is reachable. The server with the lowest

stratum is considered to be the primary server. The server with the next lowest stratum is a secondary server, and so forth. If the primary server is

down, the switch polls all servers with the polling setting enabled, and selects a new primary server with the lowest stratum".

I think the choice of terms are interesting within the GUI of the SG300, to my older way of thinking, according to the old SNTP RFC 2030

poll interval is defined as "Poll Interval: This is an eight-bit signed integer indicating the maximum interval between successive messages, in seconds to the nearest power of two."

So the term  Poll interval, as a tick option in the GUI (see attached screen shot),  seems a wee bit confusing  to me , it really seems  to relate to NTP server selection hierarchy rather than a true interval between polling a SNTP server.

I think this option is another potential source of confusion  or opportunity for the partner to call the SBSC, it it worth enabling this option as a default  and not give the user the opportunity to select that option ?.

Query 2. Version 1.0.0.27 of the code translates my NTP server name pool.ntp.org  to a IP address.  Since I am using pool.ntp.org for NTP purposes the IP address shown in the attached picture may not be valid in a weeks time .  Can the SG3000 save the domain name,  pool.ntp.org rather than a resolved IP address?

regards Dave

[thomson77840]

I agree that the "enable poll interval" check box is confusing.

Maybe they meant to say allow polling on an interval, as if by default it only checks the time once, such as boot time or the time when you click apply on that particular page.

Also agreed that saving the url would be better than translating it to an IP.

[David Hornstein]

If the Poll interval is by default 1024 seconds. why bother having SNTP poll interval as a tick item to enable poll interval.

If as i have done selected unicast SNTP for time update, then the poll interval value should be a potentially user defined variable and NOT just have a tick item.

I personally like to set my poll interval to a high value in days  and not every 17 minutes.  :-)

My request if I guess a feature request,  to alter the behavior of the product. 

Does it make sense for Don Diep to look at this request as a feature request ?

[thomson77840]

Yes.  It is good to be able to set the interval time.

I was only speculating on the original thoughts of the GUI developer.

So the feature request is for a user configured polling interval time (trying not to sound redundant).

[ddiep]

Both of your queries had been notified and currently analyzed by the support team. Will keep you posted.

[ddiep · Accepted solution]

Dave,

- Query1: Will pass on your suggestion of enabling poll interval and also to provide flexibility to set actual timer interval (instead of default timer).

- Query2: this is a known problem and developement already working on that. This change should be reflected in the next release.

Thanks.