RE: [tomcat-users] How to force Tomcat to use the system clock?

[Jason Pyeron <jp...@pdinc.us>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Salisbury, Richard W DLA CTR INFORMATION OPERATIONS 
> Sent: Friday, March 06, 2015 16:29
> 
> Greetings,
> 
> We have found a need to stop and start Tomcat once in a while to allow

How long is a "while"?

> Tomcat to connect via HTTPS with some other servers.  We think the
> restart may be synchronizing the time Tomcat uses with the server OS
> system time, and we are looking for ways to prevent having to 
> stop/start
> Tomcat.

I want to start with, I am very skeptical to your observations. 

> 
> Details:
> Our instance of Tomcat 6.0.36 runs on HP-UX B11.31 ia64 with 
> JVM Version

JVM vendor?

> 1.7.0.08.  It hosts a custom servlet which, when invoked, 
> connects with
> a remote server via HTTPS to retrieve some data.  However, 

The webapp make an outbound HTTPS connection or a client makes a HTTPS connection to the webapp?

> after about a
> month the timestamp Tomcat sends in the SSL handshake appears to drift
> enough for the remote server's time to start rejecting 
> requests because
> the timestamp is too far off (according to our partner's remote
> application logs).  

How far off?

> 
> We have confirmed that our server clock is set correctly and 
> synced with
> NTP, and matches the system clock on the remote server, which 
> also uses
> NTP.  So one thing we thought might be happening is that 

What are the NTP stats? In otherwords, how stable is the system clock.

> Tomcat (or the
> Java that Tomcat runs on) may be keeping an internal clock, perhaps

It all boils down to: 

public static native long currentTimeMillis();

Even new java.util.Date() ->

    public Date() {
        this(System.currentTimeMillis());
    }

That means all the "time" source in Java, and Tomcat come from the OS.

> using a separate thread as a way to speed up the retrieval of time so
> that it does not have to go to the OS system clock every time it needs
> the current time.  And maybe this internal clock is not 
> synced with the
> server time until Tomcat (or the JVM) is restarted.
> 	
> If this is the case, would anyone have an idea of how to force Tomcat
> (or Java) to use the server's system clock every time instead of using
> its own internal clock?   We do not care about the performance hit on
> this because this is a low-volume application.  Or, if we are
> misunderstanding Tomcat and it actually uses the system clock 
> every time
> it needs to get the current time, is there something else we should be
> looking at?

Lets start withm can you add a simple JSP to your web app?

<%=System.currentTimeMillis()%>

Then periodically:

date && date -d "@$(curl -s http://127.0.0.1:8080/date.jsp)" && date

> 	
> We have researched on the web, checked the Apache mail archives, read
> the Tomcat configuration guide, looked up the Java system options, but
> have not studied the Tomcat source code yet.  We did find 
> that there is
> a Java Wrapper product out there by Tanuki Software that provides an
> option to use system time or a background thread, which is what caused
> us to wonder if Tomcat might be doing something similar.
> 
> For more information on what the Tanuki wrapper does, here is 
> an excerpt
> we found on their website
> http://wrapper.tanukisoftware.com/doc/english/prop-use-system-
> time.html:
> "As of Wrapper version 3.1.0, a new timer mechanism was added to the
> Wrapper. This new timer was made the default in Wrapper version 3.2.0.
> Rather than keeping time by querying the system clock, the Wrapper
> creates a background thread which enters a light weight loop and
> increments an internal "tick" counter.  Internally all timekeeping has
> been modified to be based on these "ticks". (If the system 
> time is being
> used, then the tick count at any particular moment is calculated from
> the system time rather than from the counter.) "
> 
> Thanks in advance for any ideas that are shared. 
> Richard

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