RE: System Time Problem

[Banze, Andreas]

I've got an IBM x230 Server here running on Redhat Linux 6.2. The server executes a set of scheduled batch jobs everyday based on a specific time set in crontab. Each time before the cron jobs are executed, the starting and the ending of the cron job execution times are captured and output to a log file.   Now, just recently we've discovered an odd occurrence on the times captured in the log file. The ending time of the execution of a cron job has somehow appeared to be earlier than its starting time. Can anyone tell me what actually happened? How is it that   the system time went reverse during that period when the cron jobs were being executed?    We have a server that gains 27 seconds every day. It's brought back on track by an ntp-client every midnight, so there is a time jump of 27 seconds every night on the server affecting the logfiles as well.   Could it be someone corrected the time on your server while the cron job ran or is a cronjob running to the same time correcting the time?