This topic describes Alibaba Cloud Network Time Protocol (NTP) servers. Alibaba Cloud provides internal and public NTP servers to synchronize the local time of ECS instances in each network.
Internal and public NTP servers
NTP is used to synchronize the computer time in a network.
The consistency of time and time zone is important to ECS instances because it can affect the task execution results. For example, when you update a database or analyze logs, the time sequence has a significant impact on the results. When you run business on ECS instances, you must standardize the time zone of the involved instances to avoid problems such as logical confusion and network request errors. In addition, you can use NTP servers to synchronize the local time of all ECS instances in a network.
ECS provides a high-precision NTP server for your convenience. The ntp.cloud.aliyuncs.com
server offers a globally distributed NTP service that uses Stratum 1 servers. Stratum
1 servers are suitable for industries that require precise timing, such as finance,
communication, scientific research, and astronomy. The NTP service is also used to
synchronize the local time between ECS instances and other cloud services. The following
table describes the domain names of Alibaba Cloud NTP servers in various networks.
Classic network (internal network) | VPC (internal network) | Internet |
---|---|---|
N/A | ntp.cloud.aliyuncs.com | ntp.aliyun.com |
ntp1.cloud.aliyuncs.com | ntp7.cloud.aliyuncs.com | ntp1.aliyun.com |
ntp2.cloud.aliyuncs.com | ntp8.cloud.aliyuncs.com | ntp2.aliyun.com |
ntp3.cloud.aliyuncs.com | ntp9.cloud.aliyuncs.com | ntp3.aliyun.com |
ntp4.cloud.aliyuncs.com | ntp10.cloud.aliyuncs.com | ntp4.aliyun.com |
ntp5.cloud.aliyuncs.com | ntp11.cloud.aliyuncs.com | ntp5.aliyun.com |
ntp6.cloud.aliyuncs.com | ntp12.cloud.aliyuncs.com | ntp6.aliyun.com |
N/A | N/A | ntp7.aliyun.com |
Other Alibaba Cloud public services
The following table describes other public services provided by Alibaba Cloud.
Public service | Description |
---|---|
Public DNS: 223.5.5.5/223.6.6.6 | Domain name: http://www.alidns.com |
Public images: https://developer.aliyun.com/mirror |
Update frequency: The image files are updated every day from 02:00 to 04:00 (UTC+8). The images contain a wide collection of Linux distributions and open source software. |