Should I run ntpd?

© 2026 Gregory D. Weber

Activities of February 20, 2026. Published March 16, 2026.

Ever since I realized that I shouldn’t/needn’t be running powerd, I’ve wondered if I should run ntpd? Ntpd is the daemon that uses NTP (Network Time Protocol) to ensure that the system clock is set to the correct time. If the host operating system providing the virtual machine does this, does the guest operating system also need to do so?

So yesterday I asked Hetzner and was told that although “the host system provides a stable clock source to the virtual machine”, they nevertheless recommend running an NTP service inside the guest OS (ntpd, chrony, etc.). So I will keep it running.