In this best practice we implemented the Network Time Protocol (NTP), as having computer systems synchronized can be critical for applications and their recovery

Overview

NTP is used to synchronize clocks between computer systems using the network. NTP enabled servers will have a common time reference enabling activities like analysis, audits, and performance tuning. This is not a performance best practice as the goal is to have all our database servers synchronized from the same NTP server. 

Recommendation

We did not expect that implementing NTP on our servers would result in significant performance improvements. The following performance metrics did not change when NTP was running on the database servers: 

• New Orders per Minute (NOPM) 
• Transactions per Minute (TPM) 
• PowerMax IOPS
• Server CPU utilization
• DB File Sequential Read 
• Log File Parallel Write 

Implementation Steps

In Red Hat 8, the NTP protocol is implemented by the chrony daemon through the chrony package

Use the following steps to configure the daemon:

• Install the chrony patckage if it is not installed: #yum install chrony
• Edit /etc/chrony.conffile by adding a NTP server entry
  • Server ‘ip’ iburst
• To start chronyd:  # systemctl start chronyd
• To stop chronyd:  # systemctl stop chronyd
• To ensure chrondy starts automatically at system start: # systemctl enable  chronyd
• To check if chrony is synchronize: $chronyc tracking
• To check chony source: $chronyc sources
• To check chony source statistics:  $chronyc sourcestats

Additional Resources

CONFIGURING BASIC SYSTEM SETTINGS, RED HAT ENTERPRISE LINUX 8