NTP issues - VM related?

[AllBlack]

Hi,

Our two main ntp servers are having issues. The NTP service dies and shows out of memory error in the logs.

Both those servers run in a VM. These servers talk to some worldclock and specify the other as a peer

as shown below.

server clock1.canterbury.ac.nz

server tick.usno.navy.mil prefer

server tock.usno.navy.mil

server clock.isc.org

restrict 130.123.2.99

peer 130.123.2.99

I noticed that the ESX servers are actually pointing to those VMs for their NTP servers and I wonder if it somehow can cause problems

as they are hosting the VMs

Please consider marking my answer as "helpful" or "correct"

[DanielOwen]

VMware doesn't recommend you use ntp even as a client on a VM. time skews on VMs are pretty common and VMware best practice recommendations are to configure VMs to sync time with the ESX host via vmware tools. the ESX hosts themselves should sync their time via NTP. since your ntp servers are clients themselves this effects them too.

I'd recommend you run your NTP server on physical hardware.