Andryan’s Random Notes

If you wonder why your VPS or specifically OpenVZ VE’s ntpd is stuck at stratum 16 or stratum 0 while ntpq -p shows no abnormality (use ntpq -c rv to check state, it should say state=3 when abnormal), then try executing ntpdate manually. If it says “ntpdate: step-systime: Operation not permitted”, then you need to reconfigure your OpenVZ VE or ask your host to do it for you: vzctl set 123 –capability sys_time:on –save

If everything is fine but this message “ntpdate: no server suitable for synchronization found” keeps coming up, then it could be your ISP blocking UDP port 123. Use ntpdate -u to verify, this option should circumvent the firewall.

References:
http://blog.haite.ch/2009/05/22/1242984900000.html