ntpMerlin no clients shown

[slytho]

Hi!

Sometimes after powering on/booting my router "chronyc clients" doesn't show any clients in the list although chronyd obviously works because it serves the time to clients requesting it:

operator@homerouter:/tmp/home/root# chronyc clients
Hostname                      NTP   Drop Int IntL Last     Cmd   Drop Int  Last
===============================================================================

Then I simply restart chrony manually using the command line and all of a sudden "chronyc client" works, i.e. the list shows clients that requested the time after I triggered it:

operator@homerouter:/tmp/home/root# chronyc clients
Hostname                      NTP   Drop Int IntL Last     Cmd   Drop Int  Last
===============================================================================
xps13.                          1      0   -   -     2       0      0   -     -

What's the matter here? What blocks chrony from listing the clients in the first instance?

I use chrony 4.1 and ntpmerlin 3.4.5.

 

[heysoundude]

On boot, it takes a minute for the router to get its own time reference before it can go looking for the one you've pointed it to, and then it takes another minute for the clients looking to the router to grab that time reference that you've pointed them to. Restarting chrony probably moves the process up on the priority list of the router, but until the clients you've pointed at the NTP server ping and get a valid response from it, it won't show clients.

It seems to me you may have to determine where chrony is, and where it might be better. lots of info here if you dig into the specific topics/threads

...but why are you power cycling/rebooting your router that often? it's a server - just leave it to do its thing once you have it up and stable like most other servers. (see the uptime contest thread - I'm almost 2h into my 42nd day since last required reboot...and i think that was when I upgraded Merlin). If it's energy consumption, schedule the radios on&off along with the LEDs when the router isn't being used actively and you'll probably noticeably save energy costs, but at the expense of increased thermal cycling "wear," so shorten best-case lifespan (like cars, they're built to run and new routers are expensive like cars, if you haven't shopped lately)

 

[slytho]

On boot, it takes a minute for the router to get its own time reference before it can go looking for the one you've pointed it to, and then it takes another minute for the clients looking to the router to grab that time reference that you've pointed them to. Restarting chrony probably moves the process up on the priority list of the router, but until the clients you've pointed at the NTP server ping and get a valid response from it, it won't show clients.

It seems to me you may have to determine where chrony is, and where it might be better. lots of info here if you dig into the specific topics/threads

Unfortunately the problem doesn't only appear right after reboot or so. The problem occurs and stays until I restart chrony manually. Even if check it like one hour after reboot, the list is empty. However, syncing time after reboot and serving the time to clients works normally. So that is why I am wondering where the problem is located since chrony seems to work but the client list stays empty at the same time until I restart it manually.

 

[slytho]

...but why are you power cycling/rebooting your router that often? it's a server - just leave it to do its thing once you have it up and stable like most other servers. (see the uptime contest thread - I'm almost 2h into my 42nd day since last required reboot...and i think that was when I upgraded Merlin). If it's energy consumption, schedule the radios on&off along with the LEDs when the router isn't being used actively and you'll probably noticeably save energy costs, but at the expense of increased thermal cycling "wear," so shorten best-case lifespan (like cars, they're built to run and new routers are expensive like cars, if you haven't shopped lately)

Do you reboot often your router ?

Routers should never have to be rebooted except for firmware update reboots. Once the router is set it should run forever.

www.snbforums.com

 

[heysoundude]

Do you reboot often your router ?

Routers should never have to be rebooted except for firmware update reboots. Once the router is set it should run forever.

www.snbforums.com

quite a bit of discussion/dissenting opinions there, but @Tech9 (who actually repairs/refurbishes these, probably professionally as part of earning his living - the type of person who knows this stuff by necessity) suggests they last longer staying powered up and not "heating up" and then cooling down. the heat cycles shouldn't damage components so much as cracking/breaking solder points etc

 

[Tech9]

I don't know if the subject you guys discuss is hardware related in any way, but this particular Asus model has some hardware flaws and is better to be avoided. If it's purchased/owned already and is currently working properly, better leave it running 24/7 to prevent eventual issues. Seems like it has software challenges as well, because it's usually one of the last to get updates from Asus on firmware update cycles.

I play with electronics since grade 6 - radios, audio, RC planes. Later in life degree in industrial automation engineering - work on CNC machines, automated production lines, robotic arms and manipulators. My current business doesn't require soldering gun skills anymore, but I do it as a hobby. I have donated a lot of equipment through the years, but mostly business grade computers, servers, firewalls and switches.

 

[slytho]

Well, the hardware thing isn't actually my problem or question I'd rather be interested what makes the chronyc clients list fail. Anyway, I'll simpy work around the problem by using a script that restarts chrony after a boot. That'll do.