Setting Up chrony

chrony is an implementation of the Network Time Protocol and helps to keep your computer's time synchronized with NTP.

🐣 Installation

To install chrony, type:

sudo apt-get install chrony -y

To create the chrony.conf config file, copy and paste the following:

cat > $HOME/chrony.conf << EOF
pool time.google.com       iburst minpoll 1 maxpoll 2 maxdelay 0.3 maxsources 3
pool ntp.ubuntu.com        iburst minpoll 1 maxpoll 2 maxdelay 0.3 maxsources 3
pool us.pool.ntp.org     iburst minpoll 1 maxpoll 2 maxdelay 0.3 maxsources 3

# This directive specify the location of the file containing ID/key pairs for
# NTP authentication.
keyfile /etc/chrony/chrony.keys

# This directive specify the file into which chronyd will store the rate
# information.
driftfile /var/lib/chrony/chrony.drift

# Uncomment the following line to turn logging on.
#log tracking measurements statistics

# Log files location.
logdir /var/log/chrony

# Stop bad estimates upsetting machine clock.
maxupdateskew 5.0

# This directive enables kernel synchronisation (every 11 minutes) of the
# real-time clock. Note that it can’t be used along with the 'rtcfile' directive.
rtcsync

# Step the system clock instead of slewing it if the adjustment is larger than
# one second, but only in the first three clock updates.
makestep 0.1 -1
EOF

Move the file to /etc/chrony/chrony.conf

sudo mv $HOME/chrony.conf /etc/chrony/chrony.conf

Restart chrony in order for config change to take effect.

sudo systemctl restart chronyd.service

🤖 Helpful Commands

To see the source of synchronization data.

chronyc sources

To view the current status of chrony.

chronyc tracking

🔥 Bonus Commands

To pick your timezone run the following command:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

Find your region using the simple text-based GUI.

In the event that you are using national system like India's IST select:

Asia/Kolkata

This will be appropriate for all locales in the country (IST, GMT+0530).