Domain Time II Manager is an advanced and highly-capable network management and monitoring tool.
You can remotely install/upgrade/remove Domain Time II components, and see the overall time synchronization across your network from a central Management Workstation.
Manager also comes with a comprehensive suite of other management tools for advanced diagnostics, testing, ongoing monitoring/alerting, and various time-related tasks.
Use the Setup program to install both Domain Time II Server and the Manager/Management Tools
on the machine that you want to use as your Management Workstation.
Since many functions of Domain Time II Manager depend on accurate time calculations, it should be run on a physical (not virtual) machine, if possible.
Manager uses Domain Time II Server for many of its network operations; Manager will not run using Domain Time Client.
If you will be using Audit Server, you must install both Manager
and Domain Time II Server on the same machine you intend to use for Audit Server.
To launch 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:
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.
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
Manager is configured primarily using the various selections found on its Options menu. You have extensive control over how Manager
looks and operates.
Note: The Options menu items related specifically to discovering machines are discussed on the
Discovery page. The Using Templates page covers installation Templates in detail.
Configure Reference Time
Before using Domain Time Manager, you should make sure you have decided on what time source(s) to use to act as Reference Time.
Reference Time is configured by selecting Options -> Network Options -> Reference Time Sources... from the 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.
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, Manager 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 Manager 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 Manager applies advanced analysis algorithms to the collected time samples.
When this box is checked, Manager 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, Manager 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.
Appearance and Interface
These items on the Options -> Appearance and Interface menu control how items are displayed in Manager:
Format Options
These settings control how times and dates are displayed in the various fields and reports of Manager, and Audit Server (if installed).
You can also control the precision of digits displayed in variance and timings calculation fields. Be sure you have
selected sufficient significant digits to meet the timestamp granularity of any regulatory requirements you may have.
Interface Options
These settings control how you interact with Manager to add, delete, or change items in the program.
If you have Audit Server installed, it also controls how
many audits are displayed in Details Pane when you select the Audit Server -> Audit Results item from the Tree pane.
Manager Log Settings
Manager keeps a log to allow you to easily see its activity and troubleshoot any problems you may encounter.
The Manager Log is named dtman.log and is kept in the %SystemRoot%\System32\ folder.
To view these logs, click the button, which launches the Domain Time Log Viewer.
Log Level
This drop-down chooses what type of entries to include in the log. You can increase or decrease the amount of information logged as needed.
The available levels are (in increasing amount of detail):
Disabled This switch will disable the dtman.log file.
Errors Only messages marked as Errors will be logged.
Warnings Logs will include both Errors and Warnings.
Information Includes Errors, Warnings, and Information messages.
Trace Includes all of the above, plus additional detailed trace messages.
Debug Includes all available information provided by the service.
CAUTION: Debug logging will generate a great deal of data, so be sure to only enable it
when you need the additional information, and don't forget to turn it off when finished troubleshooting.
Max size
This sets how large the log file is allowed to grow (in kilobytes).
Once the maximum size is reached, the oldest events will be scrolled off to make room for new events. Enter 0 (zero) if you don't want to limit the log size.
It's a good idea to set a log size that will allow you to keep enough history to help you determine the timeframe and scope of any issues you may encounter.
Proceed to the Using the Manager Interface page