Our local setup consists of a single ntp server which synchronizes time from asia pool of ntp.org ([0-2].asia.pool.ntp.org) and several ntp servers in the intranet which synchronizes from the above server. This setup ensures identical clock on all the machines on the intranet as well as reduces load on ntp.org servers. However we faced with an infuriating problem in getting the clients to sysnchronize with the local server. In some machines we would get this error message in log ( /var/log/messages )during startup:
"ntpdate[4933]: no server suitable for synchronization found"

Restarting ntpd would give this error message:

[root@jaguar ntp]# /sbin/service ntpd start
ntpd: Synchronizing with time server:            [FAILED]
Starting ntpd:                                   [  OK  ]

The second problem was that ntp server was taking a long time to come up (with failure message as described above) thereby slowing down booting time. After much investigation and tinkering (not to mention futile searches with Google), I accidentally came across a simple solution.
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eBox platform provides a mini-debian installation along with its modules to allow you to provide and manage network services on your corporate network. The key capabilities includes support for multiple external network interfaces with load balancing, traffic shaping, transparent proxy, firewall, content filters, DNS (domain name server), NTP (time server), mail server, Jabber Instant Messaging server, SAMBA for file sharing, DHCP and more. In short it promise to be a one-stop solution for all network services needs for small businesses. Particularly I was interested in load balancing between multiple ADSL providers and traffic shaping capabilities. Here are my experiences with eBox platform.

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