[TL;DR] 1. networkd-dispatcher uses specific environment variables for passing interface state. (https://gitlab.com/craftyguy/networkd-dispatcher#usage) 2. script file(or symbolic link) must be located in /usr/lib/networkd-dispatcher/configured.d because 'chronyc onoffline' command sets sources offline when interface is in configuring state.
[Environment] - OS: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (focal) - Chrony version: 3.5-6ubuntu6.2 - Network daemon: systemd-networkd Hi, I have noticed that on some servers using systemd-networkd, all the sources are in the offline state after booting. Running the 'chronyc online' command brought the sources online and they were working fine, so there was nothing wrong with the configuration and actual source state. As it turns out, the networkd-dispatcher script that is configured when chrony is installed is simply the symbolic link to a script for NetworkManager, which did not work properly in the systemd-networkd environment. ``` $ ll /usr/lib/networkd-dispatcher/routable.d/ | grep chrony lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 42 Aug 26 2020 chrony -> /etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/20-chrony* ``` Because networkd-dispatcher uses specific environment variables to pass interface state, nothing exists in the shell argument of dispatcher script. Because of this, the '[ $# -ge 2]' condition in the existing NetworkManager-based script (20-chrony) was always FALSE, causing the 'chronyc onoffline' command to be executed regardless of the type of interface event. ``` [ $# -ge 2 ] && [ "$2" != "up" ] && [ "$2" != "down" ] && exit 0 chronyc onoffline > /dev/null 2>&1 exit 0 ``` Also, the values that networkd-dispatcher passes through environment variables are different from NetworkManager-dispatcher: (configured, routable...) And crucially, the script did not exist in the /usr/lib/networkd-dispatcher/configured.d/ directory, so the last time 'chronyc onoffline' was run when the interface was in the configuring state, the source was taken offline. Under the /usr/lib/networkd-dispatcher/configured.d/ directory, I created a test networkd-dispatcher script as shown below and it worked fine. (An additional consideration here is when the interface has been turned off...) ``` #!/bin/sh # This is a NetworkManager dispatcher / networkd-dispatcher script for # chronyd to set its NTP sources online or offline when a network interface # is configured or removed export LC_ALL=C # Note: for networkd-dispatcher routable.d ~= on and off.d ~= off [ "$STATE" != "routable" ] && [ "$AdministrativeState" != "configured" ] && exit 0 chronyc onoffline > /dev/null 2>&1 exit 0 ``` I haven't tested this in every case, but I've seen the same thing happen on at least a few OS with systemd-networkd enabled. Best regards
