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12 Replies Last post: Mar 6, 2008 6:11 AM by raoulst

Linux time ahead with clock=pit posted: Jan 11, 2008 8:07 AM

raoulst

92 posts since
Jul 3, 2006

Hi,

after solving all of my Linux time issues using the clock=pit parameter combined with vmware-tools time sync,
I now have 2 RHEL 5.1 VMs that are constantly getting ahead of time.
Other RHEL 5.1 VMs that seem to have an identical configuration seem to keep their time well using that method.
I tried setting clocksource=acpi_pm bit
as sugested in http://theether.net/kb/100039 that had exactly no effect.
So any ideas what could be the problem?

raoulst

vm configs:

+++++vm01

cat /etc/redhat-release

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5.1 (Tikanga)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5 ro root=LABEL=/ nosmp noapic nolapic
clock=pit

-> time is OK

+++++vm02

cat /etc/redhat-release

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5.1 (Tikanga)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-53.el5 ro root=LABEL=/ clock=pit

-> time is ahead

+++++vm03

cat /etc/redhat-release

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5.1 (Tikanga)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-53.el5 ro root=LABEL=/ clock=pit nosmp noapic
nolapic

-> time is ahead

Tags: 3.0.2, linux, time

Re: Linux time ahead with clock=pit

1. Jan 28, 2008 6:36 PM

in response to: raoulst

Joel Duckworth

19 posts since
Oct 30, 2007

I'm also getting issues with Ubuntu Gutsy. I've tried varying combinations of kernel parameters and it seems to be a bit random on how much time the clock will gain or if it will run on time. I've got two guests running that were created from the same template, on is running slow but the VMware tools is adjusting it forward so it's fine, however the other runs fast and gains 10 seconds a day. I've laos noticed that even though both machines are running on the same ESX server the cpuinfo is different between both, specifically the bogomips and mhz. I wonder if the kernel detects this at boot time and is calculating wrong and throwing the clocks out because of that?

Please post if you do find the source of this problem.

Thanks

Using cat /proc/cpuinfo

VM 1:

processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 15
model : 4
model name : Intel(R) Xeon(TM) CPU 3.00GHz
stepping : 8
cpu MHz : 2991.291
cache size : 2048 KB
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 5
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss nx constant_tsc up pni ds_cpl
bogomips : 6060.95
clflush size : 64

VM 2:

processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 15
model : 4
model name : Intel(R) Xeon(TM) CPU 3.00GHz
stepping : 8
cpu MHz : 2991.354
cache size : 2048 KB
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 5
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss nx constant_tsc up pni ds_cpl
bogomips : 6013.04
clflush size : 64

Re: Linux time ahead with clock=pit

2. Jan 29, 2008 5:09 PM

in response to: raoulst

Joel Duckworth

19 posts since
Oct 30, 2007

I might have got to the bottom of this

add the following argument to kernel parameters: nohz=off

From http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt

nohz= KNL Boottime enable/disable dynamic ticks
Valid arguments: on, off
Default: on

Use this along with clocksource=pit, no need to disable apic lapic and smp

The clock appears to be stable (with VMware tools and synctime keeping it up to date when it lags)

Re: Linux time ahead with clock=pit

3. Jan 31, 2008 2:10 PM

in response to: Joel Duckworth

Joel Duckworth

19 posts since
Oct 30, 2007

I believe that the problem is only for 2.6.21 and greater kernels. It was a feature added to the kernel for reducing power consumption in a idle state by stopping clock ticks if there were no timers outstanding. See http://kerneltrap.org/node/7749

Using Ubuntu Feisty which is supported for ESX doesn't have this built into the kernel (2.6.20), whereas Gutsy runs 2.6.22 which does have this feature and would explain when clocksource=pit wouldn't work by itself.

Please let me know if this fixes clock racing issues for anyone. Cheers, Joel

Re: Linux time ahead with clock=pit

4. Jan 31, 2008 2:12 AM

in response to: Joel Duckworth

raoulst

92 posts since
Jul 3, 2006

I did try clocksource=pit nohz=off on one of the VMs and it had no effect at all. It seems as if the kernel parameters would simply be ignored on those machines, because they show the same timing behavior as if I would't have set any kernel parameter at all.

raoulst

Re: Linux time ahead with clock=pit

5. Jan 31, 2008 2:11 PM

in response to: raoulst

Joel Duckworth

19 posts since
Oct 30, 2007

What distro are you running? and what VMware version?

Re: Linux time ahead with clock=pit

6. Feb 1, 2008 12:45 AM

in response to: Joel Duckworth

raoulst

92 posts since
Jul 3, 2006

I'm running ESX Server 3.0.2. Don't know what exactly you mean by what distro I'm using.

raoulst

Re: Linux time ahead with clock=pit

7. Feb 13, 2008 11:11 AM

in response to: raoulst

amoralejo

9 posts since
Oct 8, 2007

Have you installed it in 32 or 64 bits ?

Alfredo

Re: Linux time ahead with clock=pit

8. Feb 18, 2008 10:17 AM

in response to: amoralejo

raoulst

92 posts since
Jul 3, 2006

hello alfredo.

all the VMs I am having problems with are 32-bit /

raoulst

Re: Linux time ahead with clock=pit

9. Feb 18, 2008 1:36 PM

in response to: raoulst

amoralejo

9 posts since
Oct 8, 2007

A new kernel option has been added to RHEL 5.1, the tick divider, so that you can effectively
run a machine at a lower HZ than 1000 without recompiling the kernel:

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=427302

Be aware there was some bugs, corrected already in a errata for x86-.64

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=305011

I guess adding divider=10 (remove clock=pit or clocksource=pit) may help.

Be aware that locksource=pit with divider may prevent the server to boot in x86_64 arch (not your case):

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=427588

Re: Linux time ahead with clock=pit

10. Feb 20, 2008 2:42 AM

in response to: amoralejo

raoulst

92 posts since
Jul 3, 2006

Unfortunatelly setting divider=10 made things much worse. Where we gained about 1sec within 24hs it's now 8 secs in 10 hs.
I think I will now recommend using ntpd together with vmware-tools time-synch to all our linux admins, since we had by far the best results with that combination.

raoulst

Re: Linux time ahead with clock=pit

11. Mar 5, 2008 12:29 PM

in response to: raoulst

amoralejo

9 posts since
Oct 8, 2007

After a lot of research and work with redhat I've tested divider=10 using the hotfix provided for RHEL4.6 (it will be officially included in 4.7) with very good results. Clock is not longer going faster that real time, and combined with vmware tools or ntp we have an acceptable accuracy, time offset is about one second in the worst case.

Be aware that using ntp together with vmware tools may lead the systems to go ahead of system time (i've seen about 0,3 secs) and ntp stepping that time backwards. If this ca be a problem for you, use only vmware tools.

Re: Linux time ahead with clock=pit

12. Mar 6, 2008 6:11 AM

in response to: amoralejo

raoulst

92 posts since
Jul 3, 2006

That sounds quite interesting. I suspected, that there is some Problem with RHEL. Do you know if there is a fix for 5.1 as well?

raoulst

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