New NTP (Network Time Protocol) Client Support for System z9 Servers


Big news for IBM-MAINers, I suspect, since this topic has been a hot one
here recently....

IBM introduced Server Time Protocol (STP) as a replacement for the Sysplex
Timers (9037s), to move that functionality into the System z itself and
eliminate a separate hardware device. STP, an orderable mainframe feature,
helps simplify mainframe deployment. STP has a function called ETS
(External Time Source). Up until now, the only choice for ETS is a modem
dial-out mechanism to contact an external time server in order to obtain
accurate time-of-day information.

This feature works quite well and is extremely hard to "spoof," but many
customers were asking for other ETS alternatives that did not require a
telephone line and modem. Now IBM has introduced NTP (Network Time
Protocol) Client support for ETS on System z9 servers. In theory, any
standard NTP server is now eligible to be the time source for System z. In
practice, you'll want to make sure that the external time source is known
and trusted to provide accurate time-of-day information. For example, you
might wish to use a device which obtains time-of-day information from the
GPS system (government-run satellites) or from broadcast time references
such as WWV and then passes that information via NTP to your mainframe.
There are several manufacturers of such devices.

For more details on this new functionality, along with a link to a
"redpaper" with additional technical information, please visit:

http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/z/pso/stp/ntp.html

Please note that System z can already act as an NTP server, with either
z/OS (and its SNTPD feature, in z/OS 1.4 and above) or Linux on z. So you
can quite easily configure a unified time source for your enterprise.

Apologies if you're already aware of this announcement.

- - - - -
Timothy Sipples
IBM Consulting Enterprise Software Architect
Specializing in Software Architectures Related to System z
Based in Tokyo, Serving IBM Japan and IBM Asia-Pacific
E-Mail: timothy.sipples@xxxxxxxxxx
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