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Domain Time II Audit Server
Version 5.2

Domain Time II Audit Server is a robust central data-collection and monitoring service. You can monitor time synchronization, collect historical data, raise alerts, and generate summary reports for your entire network from your Management Workstation.


Installation

Audit Server is tightly integrated with Manager and Server and must be set up on a machine where they both are already installed.

Note: Since many functions of Domain Time II Audit Server depend on accurate time calculations, it should always be run on a physical (not virtual) machine.

  • If you have obtained Audit Server in a separate distribution package, use its Setup program to install Audit Server.

  • If the Audit Server files are already present on Domain Time II Manager, you will have the option to install the Audit Server service from the Audit Server item on Manager's menu.

    Audit Server runs as a background service, so it should already be running after installation. To configure Audit Server, you will need to use Domain Time Manager. Click the Domain Time Manager icon in the Start -> All Programs -> Domain Time II program folder.

    You may also launch the Domain Time II Manager program (and many other installed Domain Time II components) by right-clicking on the Domain Time icon in the System Tray to bring up the context menu.

    Network Requirements
    Verify that your environment meets the minimum requirements for performing remote operations using Domain Time components. In order to be able to install, upgrade, or configure remote machines:

    1. Your network must be a correctly-configured Windows network, i.e. configured with working name resolution (DNS, WINS, NetBIOS, etc.), correct and functioning Active Directory (if used), working inter-domain trusts, etc.

    2. Your network must pass both UDP and TCP network traffic sent to destination port 9909. Switches and firewalls must pass this traffic bi-directionally, since traffic will originate either from Manager or the remote machines. Your network must pass this traffic, regardless of what time protocols are used to actually synchronize the time.

Note: As of Version 5.2.b.20150821, Domain Time supports automatic management of the Windows Firewall to allow access to the required time protocol and control ports. See Auto-Manage Windows Firewall Settings for detailed information.

  • The remote machine must respond to PING requests from the connecting machine.

  • The connecting Domain Time program, utility, or service must be run using credentials with sufficient privileges to connect to and write files to the administrative shares on the remote machine using Microsoft Networking (Domain Admin if the target is a domain member, Local Machine Administrator if the target is in a workgroup).

  • The Remote Registry Service must be running on the remote systems and its registry keys must be accessible to the connecting program.

  • All files from the original distribution for each type of product you want to install (Server, Client, etc.) must be extracted and present on your connecting machine. Setup copies these to the proper locations in the \Program Files\Domain Time II folder for you automatically when you install the Management Tools.


Configuration

    Configure Reference Time
    Before using Domain Time Audit Server, you should make sure you have decided on what time source(s) to use to act as Reference Time. Audit Server uses the Reference Time for comparisons when measuring time deltas (variances) and for recording timestamps in logs and alerts.

    Note: Audit Server shares Manager's settings for this option.

      Reference Time is configured by selecting Options -> Network Options -> Reference Time Sources... from the Manager menu.

    Important: Stable reference time is critical to obtaining trustworthy variance data from your network. Choose sources that are known to be reliable and available over low-latency connections.

      Reference Time Source Selection
      Reference Time Source Selection   [Click for larger size]

      The Reference Clock Type:  list gives you multiple options for obtaining reference time:

      • Use this machine's clock
        The local machine's clock is used as the reference. Use this setting if the local time on your machine is being well-corrected by a reliable process such as an internal GPS clock card. On versions prior to 5.2.b.20240425, this would be the selection to choose if your Domain Time Server or Client is synchronizing using PTP. If using PTP on newer versions, choose Use this machine's sources (see below).

      • Use this machine's sources
        When selected, Audit Server will use the same time sources used by the Domain Time Server or Client installed on the local machine. This is an excellent option if you have already configured the local Domain Time Server to obtain time from reliable sources using PTP, NTP or DT2 protocols.

      • Specify a list of servers
        Use this option to specify the exact machines you want to use for your reference time. Note, you cannot specify PTP sources using this option. If you are using PTP, configure Domain Time Server with your list of sources and choose the Use this machine's sources option above.

      • Discover DT2 server(s)
      • Discover NTP server(s)
      • Discover any available server(s)
        The auto-discovery options allows Audit Server to locate available servers of the selected type on the network. Discovery will use all discovered servers if the Analyze all listed servers and choose the best... checkbox is checked, otherwise it will use the first discovered server.

        Note: To avoid the possibility of inadvertently using a free-running local clock, the discovery process will not use the local machine, even if the local machine is a time server.

      Analyze time samples and choose the best, or average equally good samples (recommended)
      This controls whether Audit Server applies advanced analysis algorithms to the collected time samples.

        When this box is checked, Audit Server contacts all of the listed servers to collect a group of time samples. It then performs statistical analysis on the collected samples to determine the reliability and uses the most reliable samples to derives the correct time.

        See the About Time Samples sidebar for more information and rule-of-thumb suggestions on acquiring time samples.

        If you are collecting multiple samples, checking this box will almost always improve your reference time's accuracy and reliability.

        If this box is unchecked, no comparative analysis among samples is performed. In addition, the list of time servers to query becomes a fallback-only list. In other words, Audit Server will only contact first listed time server. This server will always be used unless it is unavailable, at which point the next listed server will be used. If that server is unavailable, the next server in the list will be tried, etc. When the first listed server becomes available again, the Server will revert to using it exclusively.

 

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