A recent post showed how to forcibly update a Macs time against a given NTP server, i’ve since been asked how to set the Macs NTP server.

This post will try & show you how.

1st way is via a script, I use  single script which is an almagamation of 2 scripts that used to come with Casper Resource Kit & these can be found at the following: setTimeServers.sh & setTimeZone.sh.

I run the above as part of my post imaging script BEFORE the AD Bind.

2nd, to enforce the settings further I use the MCX shown below.

Display Name: Time Server
Application Domain: com.apple.MCX
Key Name: timeServer
Key Type: string
Key Value: yourntp.fqdn

This has the added benefit of greying out the Time Server setting under System Preferences > Date & Time, allowing users to change the Timezone themselves but still keep the Mac pointing to the NTP server you’ve set.