Domain Time II Manager
Version 5.1 |
 Other Management Tools
The Domain Time II Management tools include many useful diagnostic and utility programs.
These utilities are installed automatically when Manager is installed, and are located in
the Domain Time II Program Folder (usually C:\Program Files\Domain Time II).
Domain Time II Remote CPL (DTRCPL)
Use the Remote CPL utility to quickly connect to a Domain Time II Server or Full Client and change its Control Panel Applet settings. This is a useful utility
when all you need to do is change a control panel applet setting and you don't need the full power of Domain Time II Manager.
Choose a machine running Domain Time II Server or Full Client from the drop-down list, browse list, or enter its IP address, DNS name, or NETBIOS name
into the Machine field. If the connection is successful, you will be presented with a locally-running version of the remote machines' Domain Time II Control Panel Applet.
You will then be able to make all the configuration changes you would if you were actually using the remote machine (with the exception of running Time Source tests).
The DTRCPL utility is subject to the same requirements as Domain Time II Manager in order to connect to and control a remote system:
- Your network must be a correctly-configured Windows network, i.e. configured with working name resolution
(DNS, WINS, NetBIOS, etc.), correct and functioning Active Directory (if used), working inter-domain trusts, etc.
- Your network must pass both UDP and TCP network traffic sent to destination port 9909. Switches and firewalls
must pass this traffic bi-directionally, since traffic will originate either from Manager or the remote machines.
Your network must pass this traffic, regardless of what time protocols are used to actually synchronize the time.
- The remote machine must respond to PING requests from the connecting machine.
- The connecting Domain Time program, utility, or service must be run using credentials with sufficient privileges
to connect to and write files to the administrative shares on the remote machine using Microsoft Networking (Domain
Admin if the target is a domain member, Local Machine Administrator if the target is in a workgroup).
- The Remote Registry Service must be running on the remote systems and its registry keys must be accessible to the
connecting program.
DTTest
Use this utility to test the clock stability of any time server. Use it to determine which servers to use as time sources,
or to troubleshoot accuracy issues.
To test a time server:
- Enter the server name or IP address of the time server you want to test in the Server field.
- Use the Proto drop-down list to select the time protocol to use for the test (this protocol must be running on the server being tested).
- Click the Start Button to begin the test.
You may also want to adjust how many times and how rapidly to test each server by adjusting the Poll Interval and Number of Tests items.
Different poll rates affect can affect how much detail you see in the server's response characteristics. You may want to compare a very rapid sample rate
to the results from a fairly slow sample to see if the server has resolution or response issues when under rapid load.
Hint: If you will be testing against a Domain Time II Server, you will want to temporarily disable the Denial-of-Service protection on the Server. If you don't,
Server will interpret rapid test rates as a Denial-of-Service attack and stop responding to your tests.
The test will show a running list and a real-time graph showing of the amount of latency detected in the network connection, and also how large a variance exists between
your local system clock and the server being tested.
Since both the local machine and the remote system clocks and protocols have some built-in
inaccuracies, the values displayed will fluctuate occasionally. However, you should be able to see an overall trend in multiple tests -
stable clocks will show a fairly consistent variance, unstable clocks will have constantly varying values.
You can adjust the scale of the graph to show the graph in proper perspective to the accuracy you are expecting to achieve.
LMCheck
Use LMCheck to obtain a quick variance report and save the results to a file. Use this tool to do a quick & dirty check of network synchronization
on a network that doesn't already have Domain Time II installed.
 Nothing to install -- remote machines only have to be running Windows (XP or later)*
Just run the 32-bit or 64-bit version of LMCHECK.EXE from any Windows machine
The Domain Time LMCheck test tool lets you roughly assess the current time of Windows machines on your network
quickly and easily. It uses the built-in LAN Manager NetRemote TOD (Time of Day) function to check the time on all the
machines in the browse list.
Click the Start button to perform the scan. Click the Save Results button to
pull the results up in Notepad so that you may save them wherever you wish.
Time variances from the machine on which you run LMCheck are calculated and displayed,
taking into account any network latencies. You may select the domain you wish to scan
from the drop-down list.
Note: The variance report generated by LMCheck cannot be as detailed or as accurate as
variance reports provided by the Domain Time II Manager,
the Monitor Service, the
DTCheck utility, or Domain Time II Audit Server,
each of which use much more accurate time protocols and
sampling methods to measure the time differentials. Also, LMCheck cannot measure any systems not
running Microsoft Networking (with NetBIOS enabled).
Generally, you will only want to use LMCheck to obtain a quick snapshot of the time variance on networks
where Domain Time is not yet installed.
Although it is included as part of the licensed Domain Time II Management Tools, LMCheck itself is freeware, and can be downloaded
separately and freely distributed as long as the program is unmodified.
*Target machines must be running Microsoft Networking (with NetBIOS-enabled) and respond to NetRemoteTOD queries.
LMCheck for Windows 32-bit
LMCheck Windows 64-bit
DTCheck
This multi-purpose utility can check statistics, trigger Domain Time synchronizations, check clock accuracy, and generate high-accuracy variance reports, and more.
This is a very handy tool to use if you're at a workstation that doesn't have Domain Time II Manager installed.
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Run DTCheck /? from a command prompt to see a list of all the available parameters and options.
You can examine the statistics (sample) of any
Domain Time II server or client, force the synchronization of a particular
machine (or of the entire time hierarchy), and generate a system-wide variance report
(sample).
Note: DTCheck's variance reporting is much more accurate than LMCheck utility, since it
uses higher accuracy protocols and sampling methods from installed Domain Time II components.
Use this utility for variance reports on networks that have Domain Time Servers and Clients installed.
DTCheck can also be used to test your machine's clock for reliability. Run
DTCheck /test to test your machine. You will probably need to reset the
time after testing, since DTCheck will change the clock during the test.
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DTSync
Use this utility to trigger a sync on specified machines from the command line.
Run DTSync from a command prompt to see a list of all the available parameters and options.
DTSync allows you to specify timeouts and to set the ERRORLEVEL variable so you can create robust batch files to reliably trigger
synchronization, even across WAN links.
NTPCheck
A utility for testing NTP/SNTP time servers.
Use this utility if you need to save NTP server tests to a file, or want to run regular tests in a batch file.
NTPCheck provides clock test information similar to that of DTCheck, but uses the NTP/SNTP
protocol to query servers instead of the Domain Time II protocol. It is useful for determining whether or not a
particular server is reachable and operating, and for comparing the time reported by
multiple servers.
NTPCheck is also useful for demonstrating the limits of NTP/SNTP accuracy. With the -raw option, you can see the results
of other information derived from the NTP packets.
For example, here are two actual sample reports
generated by querying time.nist.gov. The first query shows the standard NTPCheck response; the second
query shows the results of the -raw option.
DTSlew
This utility allows you to smoothly slew the local clock by large amounts.
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Use this utility to move the local clock forward or backward by the amount you specify. The clock will be advanced or retarded using slewing,
so you can make the change smoothly with no clock stepping or backwards clock movement.
This is useful if you have to manually change the time on machines running critical services that must have smooth forward clock movement at
all times. DTSlew also allows you to make larger changes than would normally be possible by Domain Time Server or Client.
The rate of change is limited to the maximum amount of slewing possible by the hardware on the motherboard. DTSlew will not allow you to
select a rate that is outside of these limits.
Note: You will need to stop the Domain Time Server or Client service before running DTSlew in order to prevent conflicts over clock '
control.
Do NOT attempt to serve time from a machine running DTSlew, this will cause unpredictable results on your clients as they
attempt to track with the time server (such as unexpected stepping).
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Domain Time Removal Tool (DTClean)
DTClean is a utility that completely removes all traces of Domain Time II programs and registry settings from your system.
DTClean should be used with care, since it removes all configuration settings as well as program executables. If you are upgrading to
a newer version of Domain Time, you should use the Setup program or
Domain Time II Manager instead.
DTClean keeps a log of the components it removes, and you may save a copy of the log file for troubleshooting purposes or to supply to technical
support if requested.
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