Failing Timekeeping on 2014 Mini

[jasnw]

I have a script that tracks the time-keeping on a 2013 Macmini 6,2 running Mavericks, checking the difference between its clock time and one of the network ntp servers. The system is configured to stay in lock-step with an Apple time server, and until last week it was rock-solid, accurate to much less that 0.01 sec. Suddenly it jumped to about two minutes off, and I've had to manually reset it twice more in the past week. I expect hardward clocks to be wonky, but I thought that syncing with an external server once a day (or however often macOS does it when sycning is enabled) would keep it in line. Clearly I was wrong.

Has anyone else seen this problem, and maybe knows a fix other than running a background script to force-sync the clock at least once a day?

Attached is a screenshot of the time settings.

 

[jasnw]

SOLVED. This turned out to be a "my bad" problem. Mavericks has a problem with timekeeping, at least it did when it was released. As a result, I disabled the macOS version of sntp and installed the Macports version and configured the system to use it. Somehow the Macports sntp on that system mysteriously disappeared a few days ago, which left the system trying to run something that wasn't there. Reinstalling the Macports sntp made the problem go away.

Now I just need to figure out why sntp disappeared.