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Version 5.2 Changelog
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BuildRelease Type
5.2.b.20250630Current Version - Optional
5.2.b.20250331Optional Upgrade
5.2.b.20250101Recommended Upgrade
5.2.b.20240922Optional Upgrade
5.2.b.20240425Optional Upgrade
5.2.b.20240101Optional Upgrade
5.2.b.20230302Optional Upgrade
5.2.b.20221031Optional Upgrade
5.2.b.20220714Optional Upgrade
5.2.b.20220322Optional Upgrade
Older 5.2 Releases2010-2021 Releases

Version 5.2 Changelog


5.2.b.20250630 (30 Jun 2025) Current Version - Optional Upgrade

Several minor visual improvements in GUI components; several minor log clarifications or additions. Revised security routines to prohibit SSL3; security for outgoing SMTP allows TLS 1.1 for backward compatibility; otherwise only TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3 are supported.

  • DTLinux
  • All Components
    • Microchip-branded versions of all components, including DTLinux: Changed dtdocs.ntp-systems.com documentation and download site to support SSL/TLS (https). Standard http access is retained for backward compatibility.
  • DTServer / DTClient
    • Changed binary .dt drift file trim to keep 3/4ths of old data instead of 1/2. This extends the lifetime of old data points so the period covered is longer.
  • DTTray
    • If the system tray icon has "Animate clock during timeset" checked, but DTServer or DTClient is currently a PTP slave, the clock animation is now skipped. Animations are useful when using other time protocols, but under PTP only shows an extremely brief flash while corrections that have already completed are summarized for the logs.
  • Manager
    • Change status line on Domains and Workgroups list and Domain Time Nodes list to reflect the count of servers and clients. The prior behavior put Indp. Servers in with the count of clients.
  • Audit Server
    • Added info-level message to the text log if emails would have been sent if enabled. The former behavior was to silently skip disabled emails, which confused some customers who thought they had set up SMTP for alerting and summaries, but had failed to tick the checkboxes controlling each kind of email. (There are three: Audit Summaries, Audit Alerts, and Real-Time alerts.)
    • Changed threading model for handling Real-Time Alerts from unknown machines when Audit List management option is set to auto-add unknown machines by performing a reverse lookup.
    • Changed interpretation of Audit Server's Real-Time Alert email subject line (found at HKLM\SOFTWARE\Greyware\Domain Time II Audit Server\Logs and Alerts\SMTP) to allow substitution variable %group% for the Audit Group name. This change pertains only to the Email Subject Real-Time Alert subject line, and only to additional recipient specified on the Audit Group configuration page for each Audit Group. If present, this substitution variable will be stripped from generic TO/CC/BCC recipients. This new variable is in addition to the %date% and %machinename% variables introduced in version 5.2.b.20240101. Example: If Group 1 is named Production, and you change the registry entry to %group% - Domain Time II Real-Time Alert, then emails sent to the additional recipient will have the subject line "Production - Domain Time II Real-Time Alert".
  • Control Panel Applet
    • Removed Disable Agent and Windows Time CPL launch button from the Advanced page. These functions pertain to the Windows Time Agent (w32tmdt.cpl), which has been deprecated since version 5.1 of Domain Time in 2009.
    • Changed graphical PTP Stats display to limit dropped delay responses to 4095 so the value will fit in the field. Any number over a few dozen/day represents a problem with delay request/response transactions, so there's no sense in letting the displayed value climb forever.
    • Disabled checkbox for "Enable Trend Filter" on the PTP Options page for VM guests that are using the precise system time adjustment method. On these machines, trend filtering is automatic. For all other machines, we highly recommend leaving the Trend Filter enabled (the default setting) unless the machine is highly erratic as a PTP slave.
    • Removed "Smoothing Enabled" line from all graphical PTP Stats displays. The ability to change smoothing types or disable statistical analysis was removed in 2020, so this line always said "Yes" and provided no information.
    • Changed screen rendering of the Control Panel applet while the applet is being dragged to accommodate differences between Windows 10 and Windows 11. Windows 11 does not support all the graphical features of Windows 10 if you have customized the visual effects settings.
  • Drift Graphs
    • Moved "Data precision" line up from the Report Data Period section to the Report Time and Data Source section (when producing the textual conversion of a binary drift file).

5.2.b.20250331 (31 Mar 2025) - Optional Upgrade

This version introduces several small enhancements to various components, and also provides significant improvements to PTP steering on older operating systems (pre Server 2019 or pre Windows 11).

  • DTLinux
  • All Windows Components
    • Changed the way components that launch Notepad for displaying temporary files auto-close Notepad when the component exits. This change accommodates Windows 11's new "Notepad App" behavior without affecting the classic notepad.exe behavior.
    • Fix for UI metrics on Win11 giving the wrong value for the padded border of a dialog box. Win11 does not report the correct size of certain screen elements when they are modified by visual themes.
    • Removed grant of SeCreateTokenPrivilege and SeSyncAgentPrivilege requests. These system privileges are not needed by any component. Best practices require not requesting grant of OS privs that are not essential.
  • DTServer / DTClient
    • Removed registry entries and event associated with PTP offset changes. These values were deprecated in 2019, but retained in code for backward compatibility. See SDK.doc for more information.
    • Changed main drift graph phase column to show average phase from active PTP steering. Former behavior was to show overall phase as if PTP were not enabled.
    • Adjusted standard PTP steering trend filter algorithm to be more responsive. This is especially helpful on older operating systems (Server 2012r2 and Server 2016, for example) that don't support precise steering. The overall improvement is significant.
    • Also improved precise trend filter algorithm for virtual machines using modern operating systems. In particular, the trend filter is automatically skipped or adjusted dynamically on heavily loaded VMs.
    • DTServer only: Changed startup message "Server will NOT provide time to clients until its own clock has been set" from warning level to status (info) level.
  • Manager
    • Changed right-click Synchronize function to use standard name lookups, including Manager's Name Resolution settings. The prior behavior was to use the common name (bald NetBIOS name) or the IP address (only if the "Favor IP" toggle was set).
    • Fixed report type when viewing a remote DTLinux node's PTP drift graph text output. Prior versions of Manager could mistakenly interpret the data as Time Check samples instead of PTP data points. This was a race condition that depended on how long you looked at the graphical view before clicking the Raw Data button to produce the text report.
  • Audit Server
    • Fixed text log to allow trace-level Real-Time alerts to show up when the text log level is set to trace. An incorrect log filter setting was allowing these trace-level events to show only if the log level was set to debug.
  • Setup
    • Removed redundant system inspection after each action. This speeds up the setup process.
    • Changed setup log file format to make it more readable.
    • Eliminated "pop-under" effect when running Setup on Win11. After clicking Agree to the license terms, by default Win11 moves the setup program to the taskbar and blinks it, forcing an extra click to continue with setup. This change lets Setup stay on top, where one expects it to be. This change is more than cosmetic, since an admin can configure the taskbar to hide running programs, not blink for attention, etc.
  • Drift Graphs
    • Added summary of precise vs standard phase rates, including number of records and average phase adjustment for each type of steering. Note: If all phase rates are standard, or all are precise, only the type used will be shown.

5.2.b.20250101 (01 Jan 2025) - Recommended Upgrade

One major improvement and several minor enhancements. Added support for precise version of setting the system time adjustment. See DTServer / DTClient below for more information. Improved hypervisor detection for machines running on Amazon's EC2 platform (both Intel and AMD). Removed obsolete information from the readme.txt files included with all distributions.

  • DTLinux
  • DTServer / DTClient
    • Added support for Microsoft's SetSystemTimeAdjustmentPrecise() on operating systems that support it (Win11 or later, Win2019 or later, and up-to-date versions of Win10). This functionalty can significantly improve accuracy and precision.
    • Removed obsolete/unused registry entries from Parameters and PTPv2 subkeys.
    • Improved advanced training calculations to reduce the time required to determine the optimum value, and also to account for very small adjustments allowed by SetSystemTimeAdjustmentPrecise().
    • Eliminated full reset of filters when changing from one PTP master to another. This provides a smoother transition event.
    • Eliminated error message in log at first timecheck event if PTP has acquired a master but has not yet recorded any time samples.
    • Changed to allow advanced clock training if the machine has PTP enabled but is not a slave. Formerly, advanced clock training was disallowed if PTP was enabled at all.
  • All Windows Components
    • Changed the parent window used when displaying data using Microsoft's notepad.exe. This prevents Windows 11 or later from treating Notepad as a modal app (which forces you to close Notepad before continuing with any Domain Time application).
    • Included code for auto-closing Notepad on Win11 or later when Notepad is set to use tabs instead of a new window.
  • Audit Server
    • Added a function to clean up stale Real-Time Alerts. This feature is disabled by default; you may configure it from Manager's Real-Time Alerts Configuration/Advanced page. "Stale" refers to a node that is no longer sending Real-Time Alerts, either because the node has been decommissioned or it has been configured to stop sending Real-Time Alerts. This function is essentially the same as selecting a node from Manager's Real-Time Alert page and deleting it. If a deleted node begins sending Real-Time Alerts again, it will automatically be added back to the list. The default period of time that must pass before a node is considered stale is 60 days. The allowed range is 1-365 days. Auto-cleanup activity shows in Audit Server's log at the Trace level. If enabled, cleanup runs at service startup and periodically thereafter.
  • Manager
    • Improved window position saving/restoring, including cascading when Manager opens multiple instances of the same program (DTDrift, DTReader). Also allowed Manager to open graphs and reports above Manager in the window Z-order and to remain on top. You may enable this new behavior in Manager's Interface Options dialog.
    • Changed several "Do not show again this session" popup messages into "Do not show again" (your choice is saved in the registry). All of these confirmation messages pertain to the DTLinux Control Panel applet built into Manager. Important confirmation messages remain session-based.
  • Drift Graphs
    • On raw data textual conversions, removed leading + or − on medians and averages where the value is zero.
    • For graphs containing phase information, added a "p" to the phase number if it refers to precise system time adjustment values. Precise time adjustments use much larger numbers and vary much more than ordinary time adjustments. The trailing p lets you know why the phase numbers are outside the normal range.
    • Added optional -utc switch to load a graphical drift using UTC instead of local time. Example: dtdrift -utc c:\windows\system32\drift.dt Without the -utc parameter, the graph displays points (and raw data) use the machine's current local time zone.
    • Raw data textual conversions now contain the source's version number in the header (where available and meaningful, i.e., DTLinux, DTClient, or DTServer). Also added the node type (NTP, PTP, or Drift) and operating system information (where available).
    • Added Center Window on Screen to the system menu (upper-left corner). When clicked, this will move the graph to the center of the monitor on which it's currently displayed. Shortcut: Alt-Space-W.
    • Added Always on Top checkbox to the system menu (upper-left corner) so you can toggle any individual graph from topmost to non-topmost regardless of how the program was launched. This item only affects the current window. Shortcut: Alt-Space-A.
    • Added Local timezone checkbox to the system menu (upper-left corner) so you can toggle any individual graph back and forth from local time to UTC, regardless of how the program was launched. This item only affects the current window. Shortcut: Alt-Space-L.
    • Fixed bug in textual conversion of DTAudit-generated NTP drift graphs that prevented the text from showing the NTP node's source stratum and leap indicator.
    • Enhanced textual conversion of drift data to make the Time Source field dynamically sized (so any mixture of IPv4 and IPv6 sources will fit correctly).
    • Enhanced textual conversion of PTP drift files to show the effective NTP stratum of the source. PTP uses stepsRemoved, where zero means the same as NTP stratum 1 (primary), and so forth.
  • DTReader (Audit Report viewer)
    • Added Center Window on Screen to the system menu (upper-left corner). When clicked, this will move the Audit Report to the center of the monitor on which it's currently displayed. Shortcut: Alt-Space-W.
    • Added Always on Top checkbox to the system menu (upper-left corner) so you can toggle any individual Audit Report from topmost to non-topmost regardless of how the program was launched. This item only affects the current window. Shortcut: Alt-Space-A.
  • Control Panel Applet
    • Added radio buttons Min, Max, and Normal to the dialog for creating/editing symmetric keys. This controls the length of randomly generated keys. The default is Normal, which generates a key of a length accepted by most appliances and other servers. Prior versions always generated the maximum allowed length, meaning you had to manually edit the result if you wanted a shorter key.
  • DTCheck
    • Enhanced -monitorSTA to show both SystemTimeAdjustment and SystemTimeAdjustmentPrecise (when supported by the operating system).
    • Added parameter to -swTimestamps:enable and -swTimestamps:disable to allow you to specify one (or more) specific adapters. The default operation is to enable or disable all eligible adapters. To limit the changes, specify -name=adapter[,adapter...] using the "friendly" adapter name (the one shown when looking at the list of NICs). For example, to enable NDIS timestamps on the adapter called Ethernet, use -swtimestamps:en -name:Ethernet. If the friendly name contains spaces, you must enclose the name in double quotation marks. For exampe, to disable timestamping on Ethernet 1 and Ethernet 2, use -swtimestamps:disable -name:"Ethernet 1","Ethernet 2" and so forth.
    • Added -swts as a shorter synonym for the -swtimestamps switch.
    • Fixed bug with -ptpMasters -noExpired (the -noExpired option was being ignored when the expiry reason was missed announces).

5.2.b.20240922 (22 Sep 2024) - Optional Upgrade

Support for Windows Server 2025.

Symmetric key support for SHA256 and SHA512 for DT2 and NTP protocols. NOTE: Only MD5 and SHA1 are universally supported by NTP appliances. Your NTP time source may or may not support SHA256 or SHA512 hash types.

Added symmetric key type name (MD5, SHA1, etc) to all dropdown lists of key numbers. This is a cosmetic change to help identify the type of key being chosen.

  • DTLinux
  • Control Panel Applet
    • Fixed problem with right-click popup menu on the time sources list on multi-monitor displays.

5.2.b.20240425 (25 Apr 2024) - Optional Upgrade

Minor fixes and enhancements.

  • DTLinux
  • DTServer
    • Fix for PTP master announce stepsRemoved field when the registry NTP Server Stratum value is non-zero.
  • Audit Server
    • Changed display in audit reports from using scientific notation to decimal representation (only affects very small values; for example using 0.000050 instead of 5e-5).
    • Changed mechanism for obtaining reference time when using "Use this machine's list of time sources" and the audit machine is a PTP slave, to use the current PTP master's IP, offset, and stratum instead of querying the list of NTP or DT2 sources. If the audit machine doesn't happen to be a PTP slave, then the normal use of listed sources operates as before. This change affects the Audit Server's log file as well as Audit Result reports.
  • Manager and Monitor
    • Same change as detailed above for Audit Server in regards to reporting the source of the reference time.
  • Control Panel Applet
    • On the Obtain the Time/Correction Limits page, the Reset to Defaults button was not resetting the excess latency checkbox or associate value.
    • Fixed production of zero-length ptpMasters.txt when the CPL's focus is set to a remote machine. This only affects generation of file(s) for inclusion in sending a Problem Report from the Support page.
  • All Products
    • Microsemi-branded versions of all products, including DTLinux: Changed to remove Microsemi logo and replace Microsemi name and contact information to Microchip (Microsemi's parent company).

5.2.b.20240101 (01 Jan 2024) - Optional Upgrade

Two minor fixes in DTCheck; one enhancement to Audit Server.

  • DTLinux
  • Audit Server
    • Changed interpretation of Audit Server's email subject lines (found at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Greyware\Domain Time II Audit Server\Logs and Alerts\SMTP) to allow substitution variables %date% and %machinename% to be replaced by the current date and reporting machine (respectively).
  • DTCheck
    • Fixed invalid character in the -variance report output display.
    • Changed default Internet leap-seconds.list source from IETF to IANA (IETF no longer supports the leap seconds list).

5.2.b.20230302 (02 Mar 2023) - Optional Upgrade

Two minor changes to alerting and logging.

  • DTLinux
  • Client/Server Server
    • Fixed sending out "bounds exceeded" SNMP trap on first correction after startup when the checkbox for ignoring startup is checked.
    • Changed messages about virtualization changes (for example, live migration) from warning level to information level.

5.2.b.20221031 (31 Oct 2022) - Optional Upgrade

One important fix for Audit Server.

  • DTLinux
  • Audit Server
    • Fix for Audit Server's Daily Drift CSV report mistakenly interpreting DTLinux drift records as milliseconds instead of nanoseconds.
  • Domain Time Server
    • Changed default for new installations of DTServer in slave mode (domain hierarchy) to not use Windows RID-based authentication.
  • Drift Graphs
    • Changed text on drift graph display to say "N/A" instead of "unknown" when the phase adjustment is either inapplicable to the type of graph, or the value is zero.

5.2.b.20220714 (14 Jul 2022) - Optional Upgrade

Fixed a problem with formatting multiple recipients when sending email to GMail (Google changed its header parsing rules). Enabled support for software RX timestamps on Win11 and Win2022 (Win10 and Win2019 already have support in place). Added Remote Scan feature to DTServer, which can be used by Manager and Audit Server on large segregated networks. Other minor enhancements.

  • DTLinux
  • Manager
    • Added section to the Network Discovery dialog allowing you to specify Remote Scan options. Remote Scan works by contacting Domain Time Servers on other networks and having them perform a broadcast/multicast scan on Manager's behalf. The remote Domain Time Server(s) must be running version 5.2.b.20220414 or later, and must have Remote Scan enabled. Useful in complex networks where broadcast and multicast queries cannot reach remote subnets. A Domain Time Server positioned on the remote subnet can return a list of nodes visible to it.
  • Audit Server
    • Audit Server inherits Manager's Remote Scan settings described above.
  • DTServer/DTClient
    • Increased number of retries obtaining domain/forest information to account for lazy network startup in Win10/Win2019 and above.
    • Added Remote Scan (DTServer only) functionality. This allows Manager and Audit Server to gather network information visible to the remote DTServer. Functionality is disabled by default. To enable, use the Control Panel applet's Security tab. Click the Commands... button and tick the box for Remote Scan. This box will only appear on versions of Domain Time Server 5.2.b.20220414 or later.
  • DTCheck
    • Changed -resetserial and -reload to allow operation via authenticated UDP transaction on Windows machines (instead of stopping and restarting the service). This capability is already built into DTLinux and DTClient/DTServer, but dtcheck only used it on Linux nodes.
    • Added -remoteScan function (see Manager and DTServer above). This function lets you test a remote Domain Time Server for compatibility, and shows the information it would return if used by Manager/Audit Server.
    • Enhanced -interfaces command to display the NIC internal clock frequency (when available).
    • Enhanced -stats2 command to display the type of timestamping supported.

5.2.b.20220322 (22 Mar 2022) - Optional Upgrade

Minor fixes and enhancements.

  • Miscellaneous
    • Added Windows display version (the same as winver.exe shows) to logs and startup banners, e.g., Windows 10 21H1 (display version) instead of Windows 10 2009 (actual version number).
    • Fixed problem with dialog box upper-left small icon "sticking" to most recently used icon.
  • DTLinux
  • Manager
    • Added update of license files when upgrading a DTLinux client via "push" update from Manager.
  • DTServer/DTClient Control Panel Applet
    • Added support for specifying syslog port number to override the default target port 514/udp. You may add :n, where n is the desired port number. For example: 10.1.1.1:777 (IPv4 literal), [2600:1f18::1]:777 (IPv6 literal -- brackets are required), or mysyslogger.my.org:777 (DNS name). In all of these examples, syslog output will be sent to port 777.
    • Added support for "Do not change audit group" to the dropdown beside the "Always audit this machine" checkbox. Requires Audit Server 5.2.b.20220111 or later to work properly.
  • NTPCheck
    • Added -rtt switch to show originate and terminate timestamps, and display total round-trip time. Ignored if -raw is not also specified. Ignored if output is either -json or -csv.
  • DTCheck
    • Fixed typo in -help text.
    • Eliminated requirement for Remote Registry service for certain operations targetting the local machine (specified by providing no target, using the machine's NetBIOS name, using the IP 127.0.0.1, or the IP ::1).
    • Removed test routines for obsolete bc635/637 PCI clock cards.
  • SDK
    • Added atomic copy to GetPTPStats() to prevent rare race condition.
    • Updated comments inside APITest.cpp to demonstrate how to get the full path/filename of the loaded DLL, and how to convert hectonanoseconds to either microseconds or milliseconds.

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