How do I prevent ESX from changing the BIOS time when it boots up??

[tlyczko]

I am having various difficulties getting NTP working properly on 2 new ESX hosts.

I have tried several things, and one of the issues seems to be that ESX upon bootup changes the system time, and therefore everything after that is off time-wise.

Is there any way I can prevent this??

I know there is a line one can put into /etc/ntp.conf, something like restrict notrap noquery etc. but this is seen long after the server boots.

I know this is happening because when I reboot I can look via ILO and see in the BIOS that the system time has changed and I must reset it.

I'm going to try re-installing ESX to one of the servers and practice with it.

These are HP servers which don't allow setting the clock to UTC.

I've found this MAY be the best procedure for me to get the correct timezone, even though it's old:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=1436&slice...

KB #1436

All our servers are in NY State, so UTC is not absolutely essential to me.

Thank you, Tom

[Troy_Clavell · Accepted solution]

chkconfig --level 345 ntpd on

hwclock --systohc

Here's another good KB

[benma]

Troy, thanks for this hint.

[tlyczko]

Hi Troy,

Thank you for replying...

The VI Client doesn't do very well for setting up NTP in ESX 3.5 u3,

sigh, at least not for me.

THIS may be much better: http://www.vmcolonel.net/?p=13

I forgot I had it until just now and I will try it out...

It automates everything in the KB you gave me, I don't know how it

responds to how /etc/sysconfig/clock is set up, I'll try it...

Thank you, Tom

[Troy_Clavell]

good stuff! The KB I pointed out will provide you manual steps from the service console as well as the VIC

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