I know there are instructions for installing full NTP, but I'd rather change the default server under the default implementation. This question has come up before for 12.04 LTS, however the answer there:
edit the value of NTPSERVERS in /etc/default/ntpdate
appears to be no longer valid.
Ubuntu 16.04 uses by default server ntp.ubuntu.com [reference].
To change the default server, edit the config file with an editor:
sudo vi /etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf
Uncomment the NPT= line and define the server you want to be used instead of default:
[Time]
NTP=some.ntp.server.com
To "audit" the time-synchronization events and verify the server that was contacted, use the following command:
cat /var/log/syslog | grep systemd-timesyncd
systemctl status systemd-timesyncd can also be used to "audit," see PaulBags comment on the accepted answer (I like yours better). And sudo systemctl restart systemd-timesyncd can be used to force a sync.
– Ulrich Stern
Aug 22 '19 at 18:49
/etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf.d/ntp.conf ?
– Vsevolod Gromov
Nov 14 '20 at 11:07
journalctl -fu systemd-timesyncd.service to view updates in real time to the time service. Or at least do a tail -f /var/log/syslog, cat does not update.
– Dave
Jan 13 '23 at 13:53
According to the official documentation at: https://help.ubuntu.com/lts/serverguide/NTP.html
The nameserver to fetch time for timedatectl and timesyncd from can be specified in /etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf and with flexible additional config files in /etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf.d/.
/etc/default/ntpdatethere is a warning that the file is not actually used, but that/etc/ntp.confis used instead. There are various time servers mentioned in/etc/ntp.conf, did you try changing that? – Jos Nov 03 '16 at 07:42