NFS Clock11 Security Checklist: Harden Your Configuration

NFS Clock11: Complete Guide to Installation and Setup

Overview

NFS Clock11 is a networked time synchronization and logging tool designed for distributed systems requiring precise timestamps. This guide walks through prerequisites, installation, configuration, verification, and common troubleshooting steps for a standard Linux environment.

Prerequisites

• OS: Debian/Ubuntu or RHEL/CentOS (tested on recent LTS releases).
• Privileges: Root or sudo access on each node.
• Network: TCP/UDP allowed between nodes on configured ports.
• Dependencies: build-essential, libssl-dev, pkg-config, git (if compiling from source).
• Time source: Access to a reliable NTP/PTS/GPS source (optional but recommended).

1. Obtain NFS Clock11

Choose one method:

• Package repository (preferred if available):
  • Add vendor repository and install via apt/yum/dnf.
• Prebuilt binary:
  • Download the tarball or binary for your architecture.
• Build from source:
  • Clone the repo and compile.

Example (build from source):

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sudo apt update sudo apt install -y build-essential libssl-dev pkg-config git git clone https://example.com/nfs-clock11.git
cd nfs-clock11 make sudo make install 

2. Basic Configuration Files

NFS Clock11 uses a main config file, typically at /etc/nfs-clock11.conf. Minimal example:

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# /etc/nfs-clock11.conf mode = server# server | client | hybrid listen_address = 0.0.0.0 port = 11111 time_source = ntp://pool.ntp.org log_level = info peers = [“10.0.0.2”,“10.0.0.3”]   # for cluster mode 

Key options:

• mode: role of the node.
• listen_address / port: network binding.
• time_source: upstream time provider (NTP, PTP, GPS URL or device).
• peers: other Clock11 nodes for consensus.
• loglevel: debug/info/warn/error.
• auth: (optional) enable mutual TLS or token-based auth.

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tls_enabled = true tls_cert = /etc/nfs-clock11/cert.pem tls_key  = /etc/nfs-clock11/key.pem tlsca   = /etc/nfs-clock11/ca.pem 

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[Unit] Description=NFS Clock11 daemon After=network.target

 
[Service] Type=simple ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/nfs-clock11 –config /etc/nfs-clock11.conf Restart=on-failure User=nfsclock Group=nfsclock
 
[Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target 

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sudo useradd -r -s /sbin/nologin nfsclock sudo systemctl daemon-reload sudo systemctl enable –now nfs-clock11 

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mode = client servers = [“10.0.0.1:11111”]