[Forum FAQ] How to sync time with a Domain Controller for a standalone server

Question

As we all known, if a computer belongs to an Active Directory domain, it will sync the time automatically by using the Windows Time service that is available on Domain Controllers.
While a standalone server will synchronize with its local hardware time and Windows time server. (Figure 1)
Figure 1.
Under some circumstances, a standalone server is necessary in a product environment. We can sync the time of this standalone server with the Domain Controller using
the steps below:
1. Modified the value of the AnnounceFlags:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Config
Under this entry we can see the default value of AnnounceFlags is 10 (Decimal), we configure the value as 5 (Decimal). (Figure 2)
Figure 2.
2. Confirm the value of the registry key below is set to 0:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\TimeProviders\NtpServer 
Figure 3.
3. Configure the standalone server to synchronize with a specific time source (Domain Controller).
In our test, we configured our Domain Controller (192.168.10.200) as the time source. Used the following commands:
w32tm /config /syncfromflags:manual /manualpeerlist:192.168.10.200
4. Sync the time with the Domain Controller using the command below:
w32tm /config /update
From the figure below (Figure 4), you can see the after we did all the steps above, the time on the standalone server was synced with the Domain Controller.
Figure 4.
(Note: Peerlist is a separated list of DNS servers, or IP Addresses for the time servers)
More information:
Windows Time Service Tools and Settings
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc773263(WS.10).aspx#w2k3tr_times_tools_dyax
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Answer 1

Thank you for the instruction! I am sure it is one of the scenarios that majority of administrators will run into. So I suggest to write a wiki about it and publish it for this month's TechNet Guru in Windows Server section. This month's TechNet Guru can
be found here:
Calling All Wise Men! Windows
Server Gurus Needed! Apply Within! No One Turned Away!
Thanks for your informative post. :)
Regards.
Mahdi Tehrani   |  
  |  
www.mahditehrani.ir
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