Document Managed by Network Systems

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• Information on services
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RUCS/TD maintains a group of identical servers to provide the university with centrally administrated services that are necessary for most systems to utilize resources on the internet. These servers are distributed across the rutgers network so as to give reliable access to these key services in the face of minor network problems and outages. The services provided on these servers include DNS and NTP. Additional services will be added as it is determined they are required and centrally supported by RUCS/TD.

DNS

Domain Naming System. Translates hostnames recognizable by users into the IP addresses used by networked computers. Many departments have their own DNS servers, where available, those systems should usually be utilized instead of or supplemented by the network service systems.

Most operating systems allow more than one DNS server to be configured. Where possible users should configure a minimum of two of them. Configuration also usually includes setting the system"s domain name. At Rutgers this is most often rutgers.edu.

NTP

Network Time Protocol. NTP is used to synchronize the clocks of many networked systems so that they are all set to the same time. NTP itself does not insure systems have the correct time, only that they are all the same time. The Rutgers NTP servers utilize version 3 of the NTP protocol and are capable of answering queries from either NTP or SNTP clients running that utilize version 3 or lower.

NTP usually permits multiple servers. As with DNS users should configure more than one if they have that option. NTP needs to always have a quorum of reachable servers so it is necessary to configure at least 3 if you choose to use more than one.

Rutgers bases it"s time on the government"s Global Positioning System; our master time servers a therefore within a few microseconds of what the US government considers the correct time to be. The NTP service at Rutgers should maintain an accuracy of better than one second to this standard time even if GPS becomes unavailable for an extended period.

The network service systems are located throughout the rutgers network and have been strategically placed to provide equal service to all users on the Rutgers network.