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The syncinterval Attribute

The syncinterval attribute prevents your system from synchronizing more often than the specified interval. This attribute prevents the maxinaccuracy attribute from causing continuous synchronizations. As mentioned in The maxinaccuracy Attribute, the maxinaccuracy attribute triggers system synchronization as long as the system's inaccuracy is above a specified value. The syncinterval attribute prevents synchronization from occurring more frequently than the specified interval value. (The syncinterval attribute value is randomized to prevent several systems from synchronizing simultaneously, and is an average, rather than an exact value.)

The maxinaccuracy and syncinterval attributes are interdependent; system synchronization occurs automatically when both of the following conditions are met:

· The inaccuracy of its clock equals or exceeds the maxinaccuracy attribute value.

· The time since the last synchronization equals or exceeds the syncinterval attribute value (slightly randomized).

Note that if the system reaches the syncinterval attribute setting, but has not yet reached the maxinaccuracy attribute setting, the system does not synchronize.

The default syncinterval attribute value is 2 minutes for servers and 10 minutes for clerks. If you are trying to minimize the skew between systems, you can lower the syncinterval attribute value. For example, if you want a clerk to synchronize every 5 minutes if its inaccuracy reaches 100 milliseconds, enter the following command:

dcecp> dts modify -change {syncinterval 00-00:05:00.0000}
dcecp>

The syncinterval attribute does not prevent the clock synchronize command from working. You can synchronize a system at any time by entering this command. The syncinterval attribute only affects automatic synchronizations triggered by the maxinaccuracy attribute. (See the clock(8dce) reference page for more information.)