Ubuntu Time Configuration

Setting the Time Zone

To check the current time zone set, run the following command:

timedatectl

To get a list of available time zones, run the following command:

timedatectl list-timezones

To set the timezone to one of the above time zones, run the following command (using Central time as an example):

sudo timedatectl set-timezone America/Chicago

Manually setting NTP server using TimeSyncD

If you need to manually configure an NTP server, edit the following configuration file:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf

Add the following line with spaces between each NTP server you want to sync with:

NTP=<ntp_server_1> <ntp_server_2>

Restart the time synchronization service with:

sudo service systemd-timesyncd restart

You can also check the status of the service with:

sudo service systemd-timesyncd status

Using Chrony instead of TimeSyncD

Install Chrony with the following command:

sudo apt install -y chrony

Edit the default Chrony config if you need to manually configure NTP servers with the following command:

sudo nano /etc/chrony/chrony.conf

To specify a single server instead of an NTP pool, use the following line in the configuration:

server <ip_address> iburst

Restart the Chrony service with:

sudo service chrony restart

You can force Chrony to sync time immediately with the following command:

sudo chronycchronyd makestep-q

You can check the status of Chrony with the following commands:

chronyc activity

chronyc tracking

chronyc sources

chronyc sourcestats