Windows 2003 SP1 PDC announces itself as stratum 1

Hi all,

I have the following setup:

NTP client: Single domain controller (Windows 2003 SP1) with w32time

service running. Being the only DC in the domain (and forest), it has

all FSMO roles including the PDC-role.

NTP server: GNU/Linux running ntpd at stratum-2.

The w32time service har been configured using: "net time /

setsntp:<ip_of_linux_ntp_server>" + net stop/start w32time.

Problem:

When starting the w32time service (or when running "w32tm /resync"),

the PDC announces itself as being a stratum-1 server, so when the NTP-

server - being a stratum-2 server - receives NTP requests from the

PDC, it

silently ignores the requests from the PDC.

Why does my PDC announce itself as stratum-1?

I've tried setting the "AnnounceFlags" regkey to "5" and restart

w32time, but this does not seem to affect the w32time service's

stratum...

Using NTP client mode (setting regkey "NtpServer" to

<ip_of_linux_ntp_server,0x8>) does not help either.

I am currently experiencing this problem on some of our PDCs (I'm

working for a hosting company, so we manage a lot of domains in

separate forests) running on physical hardware as well as with

virtualized ones (vmware).

The PDCs that *are* able to sync against the NTP server, announce

themselves as being stratum-3 servers - this includes a fresh test-

domain controller I installed on vmware yesterday; it's w32time

service is doing

fine. I've even tried exporting the Service\w32time regkey from this

box and importing it on one of the problematic PDCs - no use.

Rebooting the PDC computer does not seem to help - stratum is still 1!

Anyone else seen this odd behaviour?

How can I fix this? (yes, I could install a 3-party NTP-client, but I

really want to find out *why* some of my PDC think they are at stratum

1)

Regards,

Espen