[Dovecot] dovecot and ntp: Fatal: Time just moved backwards

[Charles Marcus]

On 6/9/2009, Eugene (genie at geniechka.ru) wrote:
> Basically it is the only thing I don't like in Dovecot... and was
> even planning to hack the time check out of the code =))

That would not be a good idea.

You are chasing a symptom (the way dovecot responds to a serious
problem), instead of the problem. Maintaining correct time is absolutely
critical on a server, *especially* a mail server. Fix the problem - why
'time just moved backwards' keeps happening - and the dovecot 'symptom'
goes away.

> In most cases we talk about, it can't be fixed permanently because
> this happens after (cold or warm) system restart, when ntpd can take
> up to 15 minutes (and in most cases about 3-5 minutes) to actually
> resync the time.

I see that Harlan already addressed why this is only true if you haven't
done your homework.

-- 

Best regards,

Charles