Forest root domain controllers may display system events 54 and 64 (312534)

SYMPTOMS

Domain controllers may display the following event 54 and 64 errors in the system event log:

Event Type: Warning
Event Source: w32time
Event Category: None
Event ID: 54
Date: date
Time: time
User: N/A
Computer: ROOTDC
Description: The Windows Time Service was not able to find a Domain Controller. A time and date update was not possible.

Event Type: Warning
Event Source: w32time
Event Category: None
Event ID: 64
Date: date
Time: time
User: N/A
Computer: ROOTDC
Description:

CAUSE

This issue can occur because of repeated network issues or if the Time service has been unable to find a domain controller to synchronize with for a long time. To reduce network traffic, the Time service will wait 960 minutes before it tries again, and no synchronization takes place during this interval, even if network connectivity is restored after being in a disconnected state for an amount of time that is less than the synchronization interval.

MORE INFORMATION

Accumulated time errors may cause certain network operations to fail. To update the Time service and let it know that network connectivity has been restored and that it should resynchronize, use any of the following commands at a command prompt:

net stop w32time
w32tm -s
net start w32time

NOTE Because the Forest Root DC is the timesource for the whole forest, it has to be configured manually to synchronize time with an external time source. Also, if time synchronization with an Internet source isn't critical, you can also configure the DC with the PDC master role to be the authoritative time server.

For additional information about how to configure a computer to use a timesource on the Internet, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

262680 A List of the Simple Network Time Protocol Time Servers That Are Available on the Internet

For additional information about how to configure the PDC master as authoritative, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

216734 How to Configure an Authoritative Time Server in Windows 2000

NOTE: You can safely ignore the Event log entries that are listed in the "Symptoms" section of this article if you do not want to synchronize the Forest Root DC with an external timesource. However, if you want to disable the these events, set the Type value to NoSync as described in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base articles:

223184 Registry Entries for the W32Time Service

305135 The Windows 2000 Time Service Does Not Work Through a Proxy with Access Control Enabled

For additional information about the Time service, please see the following Microsoft Windows Time Service whitepaper:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/Windows2000Pro/maintain/w2kmngd/16_2kwts.mspx