On 2013-10-09, at 10:53, Ted Lemon <ted(_dot_)lemon(_at_)nominum(_dot_)com>
wrote:
Of course there are cases where this doesn't matter, and DHCP is just fine,
but I can't think of any other than perhaps a self-setting wall clock.
DNSSEC validation imposes a requirement for clock sync (to the accuracy
reasonably required to consider signature inception and expiry times). There is
a possible future in which such validation takes place on end hosts, rather
than intermediate resolvers. (We may wind up somewhere else, but there are
certainly people who think that is the Right Way).
In that sense any device that needs to look up names in the DNS has a potential
requirement for time sync.
Of course even the wall clock you imagine might have a vendor who is capable of
running their own array of time servers as (e.g.) Apple does, but it seems
reasonable to imagine that there will be people who are not in that position,
and since I agree with you when you say:
Of course, if a CPE vendor were to hard-code the FQDN of an NTP server
belonging to someone else into their devices, that would be disastrous.
it seems to me that there's a plausible use case for a DHCP client to receive
direction on what servers to chime against.
Joe