Clock on some Windows 2003 VMs gaining time

[davel1970]

Hi all,

Here's a strange time problem I'm having... First a bit of background info.

We have 8 ESX servers. 4 of them are IBM 3850 running ESX3.02. These work well with no problems.

Also 2 IBM x460 + MXE460 running ESX2.5 - again these work OK (we're gradually migrating VMs off these onto the VI3 hosts).

...And finally 2 more IBM x460 + MXE460 running ESX 3.02 - this is where I'm getting the time problems....

The clocks on some windows 2003 and windows 2000 VMs on these last 2 hosts gradually starts gaining time (roughly a minute a day). Using the 'date' command on the Service Console shows the correct time.

All the VMs in our environment have the 'Sync Time to Host' set in VMware tools and have the windows time service turned off. Also all hosts sync their time to the same external ntp server.

On an affected vm, I can turn off vmware tools service and set the time slower than the host and then turn vmware tools back on and see the time on the vm get corrected. If I leave this vm after a couple of days it will be a few minutes fast.

Any thoughts?

Cheers,

Dave

[malaysiavm]

Why not you SYNC ESX host and any other VM guest using same time server instead sync VM guest with ESX host.

Malaysia VMware Communities -

[lfchin]

http://itknowledgeexchange.blogspot.com/2008/08/time-synchronize-on-vm-and-esx.html

Here it show the alternative way you may consider to change the time synchronization in you VM guests

Rolando

[petey]

While this problem looks to be centered around ESX, Windows 2003 has had time accuracy issues all the time anyway. We decided long ago not to troubleshoot w32time accuracy issues, but instead increase polling frequency (which cannot be set in the w2003 registry, due to a bug) by simple multiply scheduled tasks either running a "net time \ \domaincontroller /set /yes" command (in case of domain member machines), or by periodically restarting w32time itself with an external NTP server set. We have never managed to get accurate time out of a windows2003 machine (physical and virtual) without w32time service and external synchronistation with a DC or NTP server.