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anukalp
Contributor
Contributor

Best Possible Method to Time Sync ESXi Virtual Hosts and Virtual Machines.

I need help to find out the best possible method to time sync ESXi virtual hosts and VMs for the following setup.

I have a setup which has 8 ESXi Virtual Hosts. The number(s) of physical hosts on which these are deployed is unknown.

I can connect to vCenter using vSphere client and in the GUI I can see 8 ESXi Virtual Hosts and there are 2 Virtual Machines on each

of these hosts which have SUSE Enterprise linux deployed on them.

The network diagram is as follows:

ESXi Virtual Hosts                                                                                                     SUSE Enterprise 11 Virtual Machines

                                                                                                                                 on 10.108.190.X hosts

10.108.190.1                                                                                                              |128.221.252.35

10.108.190.2                                                                                                              |128.221.252.36

10.108.190.3.                                  SUSE VMs on 10.108.190.X                                 |128.221.252.37

10.108.190.4----------------------------------10.108.190.9 and   128.221.252.33--------------------------|128.221.252.38

10.108.190.5----------------------------------10.108.190.10 and 128.221.252.65--------------------------|128.221.252.67

10.108.190.6                                                                                                              |128.221.252.68

10.108.190.7                                                                                                              |128.221.252.69

10.108.190.8                                                                                                              128.221.252.70

I don't have access to internet connection on any of these machines. the 2 Virtual Machines in the middle are on one of the ESXi Virtual Host

and have network route to both the subnets.

What method I can use to time sync all of these. I tried to setup ntpd on 10.108.190.1 to take time from its local clock and then sync all other machines

in 10.108.190.x subnet to it.

The machines in 128.221.252.x subnet are time synced to 10.108.190.9/128.221.252.33(this one acts as ntp server to 128.221.252.x subnet.

Is there a better way to time sync all of the to the same time? Using or without using NTP. Internet Connection is not available and I donot know

on how many physical hosts are the ESXi Virtual Machines deployed. I have access to a vCenter on Windows 2008 Server, which is also a

VM.

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4 Replies
DavoudTeimouri
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Did you setup NTP client on your ESXi hosts?

If not, you can setup NTP client on them and add your NTP server address on that.

Then you have to check "Time Synchronization" in virtual machine settings and VMware Tools section.

After that, virtual machines will be synced with ESXi hosts via VMware Tools automatically.

VMware KB: Verifying time synchronization across an ESX/ESXi host environment

VMware KB: Configuring Network Time Protocol (NTP) on ESX/ESXi hosts using the vSphere Client

Configure Time Synchronization Between Guest and Host Operating Systems

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Davoud Teimouri - https://www.teimouri.net - Twitter: @davoud_teimouri Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/teimouri.net/
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anukalp
Contributor
Contributor

I don't know if I got you correctly.

I have started ntp clients on all the ESXi hosts(these are virtual ESXi hosts running on top of physical ESXi hosts) as well as on the virtual machines deployed on them.

Now I should use vmware tools on the virtual machines instead ntp and vmwaretool will automatically sync the time?

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DavoudTeimouri
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Not instead of NTP client on virtual machine but you can use VMware tools for syncing virtual machines time with ESXi.

Then you don't need setup NTP client on virtual machines manually. It's working even you don't have NIC on virtual machine.

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Davoud Teimouri - https://www.teimouri.net - Twitter: @davoud_teimouri Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/teimouri.net/
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anukalp
Contributor
Contributor

Yeah...great!

Thanks....I will do that now....and check!

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