I was running ntpd locally on a server and wanted to check in on ntpd’s status. ntpq -p was not producing any output even though ntpd was running.

# ntpq -p
localhost: timed out, nothing received
***Request timed out

This is because I had the option “restrict default ignore” set in /etc/ntp.conf. ntpq. This makes ntpd ignore EVERYTHING, even queries to the loopback interface. Ntpq queries ntpd over the loopback interface at 127.0.0.1. To allow these local queries, add:

 restrict 127.0.0.1

to /etc/ntp.conf, then also add restrict lines for your other upstream ntp servers.

restart ntpd:

/etc/rc.d/ntpd restart

Now ntpq -p will show you status of it’s peers

# ntpq -p
     remote           refid      st t when poll reach   delay   offset  jitter
==============================================================================
 dns3.untangle.c .INIT.          16 u    -   64    0    0.000    0.000   0.000
 mirror          .INIT.          16 u    -   64    0    0.000    0.000   0.000
 153.16.4.133    .INIT.          16 u    -   64    0    0.000    0.000   0.000