If you are installing Oracle Clusterware on a Linux or UNIX machine, the following error may occur if you have not turned on Slewing:

PRVF-5439: NTP daemon does not have slewing option “-x” set on the node

The following procedure will remedy this problem, as demonstrated in a RHEL 5.4 environment.

1. Logon to your Oracle cluster node as the root user

2. Open the file /etc/sysconfig/ntpd and ensuring that the line

OPTIONS=”-u ntp:ntp -p /var/run/ntpd.pid -x”

3. If the line does not contain the –x option, edit the file so it reads as above.

4. Then stop the service as below, with the command /sbin/service ntpd stop

[root@mylinux1 ~]# /sbin/service ntpd stop
Shutting down ntpd: [ OK ]

5. Restart the service as below, with the command /sbin/service ntpd start

[root@mylinux1 ~]# /sbin/service ntpd start
ntpd: Synchronizing with time server: [ OK ]
Starting ntpd: [ OK ]
[root@mylinux1 ~]#

6. Verify that the –x option has been implemented, with the command ps –ef|grep ntp

[root@mylinux1 ~]# ps -ef|grep ntp
ntp 8301 1 0 20:33 ? 00:00:00 ntpd -u ntp:ntp -p /var/run/ntpd.pid -x
root 8792 28965 0 20:34 pts/1 00:00:00 grep ntp
[root@mylinux1 ~]#

This completes turning the NTPD slewing option on for Oracle clusteware.

Larry J. Catt, OCP 9i, 10g
oracle@allcompute.com
www.allcompute.com