Time drift / Posts out of order

[jibi]

I believe this will likely be an issue with the hosting servers (mediatemple's (gs) service), but I just wanted to post here to see if anyone had any ideas. Starting today, at various times, when someone makes a reply to a post, it sometimes shows up before the post they were responding to. The timestamps are incorrect (off by 10-30 minutes) although the post ID increases as expected.

During this time, I login to the web server and the times reflect correctly. So I am curious where the timestamp comes from - the web server or the database server? I don't believe I have access to the database server, so I'm not really sure if I would be able to login to see that time if I wanted to.

[Jake Bunce]

Your server clock is on the fritz. You should turn off your forum to prevent more out of order posts. Then ask your host to fix the clock.

There is no easy way to fix existing posts that are out of order.

[jibi]

I agree. The problem is that the server is hosted on grid technology, so having them correct the time on a single server is not really the issue. I have updated my case with them with the posts that are off (at least 24 of ~85 since 8:30am).

Just curious, is 'dateline' (in the 'post' table) populated with the unix timestamp from the database server or the web server (when a two server configuration is being used)? I think that will narrow my search as to the problem server(s).

Thanks.

[Jake Bunce]

The timestamp comes from the web server, not the database server.

[tinerd]

I am having this issue as well. I opened a ticket with my host and was told that the time was correct and updating.

I suppose there is not much else I can do?

[Jake Bunce]

Out of order posts is definitely a problem with the server clock. If the problem persists then you know the clock isn't fixed.

[Martin Saldert]

So what could be wrong with the server clock?
I have the same issues from time to time.
A couple of times a week i get this problem.
That should mean that my clock is sometimes wrong?

I need some help to figure out what to tell the host company what i need help with :-)

[Jake Bunce]

That should mean that my clock is sometimes wrong?

Yes. I had that happen to me once. The server clock was randomly changing... some kind of motherboard problem.

[Martin Saldert]

That would explain things.
Now the big question.
How to prove that to the ISP :-)

[bacemail]

I am using Media Temple as well. Board users are telling me that some of the timestamps are off by ~ 20mins. This has been happening on and off for a couple of days now.

I'm calling to open up a ticket and email MT this thread's url.