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KLGSO
Contributor
Contributor
‎09-07-2022 07:02 PM

ESXi Host with 2 NTP Sources

Hello,

I have a few questions on how an ESXi host syncs its time when 2 NTP sources are provided:

  1. Will the host use the first source exclusively until it becomes unavailable, then switch to the second source?
  2. If 1. is not the case, will the host evaluate both sources before picking a source to sync with?
    1. If 2., how does the host determine which source to sync with? Does it look at stratum level, deviation from currently configured time, or some other metric(s)? 
  3. If neither 1. nor 2. applies, does the host use some other method to decide on which source to sync with?
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KLGSO
Contributor
Contributor
‎09-11-2022 11:07 PM

Raised a support ticket with VMware and got the answer. Leaving this here in case anyone else is also curious:

For the query, please find the below screenshot as an example:

You are absolutely correct, when the ESXi is using 2 NTP servers,

the host looks at the statum level, deviation from currently configured time, and decides the source to sync with.

 

KLGSO_0-1662962702143.png

 

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