Incorrect time via VI Client

[RAlltuck]

When monitoring my VMs with the VI Client (eval of 3.0.2), specifically in the Performance area (and basically everywhere else), the time frames shown on the performance chart are about 7 hours earlier than the current time. The times on the VMs are correct.

How do I get the time shown via the Client to reflect the correct time?

Thans.

[oreeh]

Are all the systems (ESX, VC server, DB server, client) set to the same time and the same timezone (including the same BIOS settings)?

[Dave_Mishchenko · Accepted solution]

The time on your ESX host is most likely off by 7 hours. Here's a KB article on how to sync the server with an NTP source: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1339

[williamarrata]

First make sure that all you ESX servers are set correctly with time.

To change the time zone, please follow the steps below.

Note: It is not necessary to reboot the ESX Server host after following this procedure.

Log on to the ESX Server service console as root.

Find the desired time zone under the directory /usr/share/zoneinfo.

Note: Some regions have multiple files in a subdirectory. For example, US contains several files, each representing a time zone.

The example below uses /usr/share/zoneinfo/US/Pacific as the new time zone file.

Use vi or another text editor to open /etc/sysconfig/clock. Edit this file to show the relative path to the file representing the new time zone, and ensure that UTC and ARC are set as shown:

ZONE="US/Pacific"

UTC=false

ARC=false

Copy the desired time zone file to /etc/localtime. Continuing the example using US/Pacific:

cp /usr/share/zoneinfo/US/Pacific /etc/localtime

At the cp: overwrite `/etc/localtime'? prompt, answer y to replace the file representing the old time zone. Again, it is not necessary to reboot the ESX Server host after updating /etc/localtime.

Confirm that /etc/localtime has been updated with the correct zoneinfo data using the following steps:

Reference the zoneinfo file used in step 2 and compare it to /etc/localtime using the diff command.

# diff /etc/localtime /usr/share/zoneinfo/US/Pacific

If the files are identical, your prompt will return without any output.

If /etc/localtime is not the same as the /usr/share/zoneinfo/<your location>, the output from the diff command will be something like the following:

Binary files /etc/localtime and /usr/share/zoneinfo/US/Pacific differ

If the files are not the same, repeat step 4.

After updating /etc/localtime with the correct zoneinfo data, confirm the system and hardware clocks are correct. Use the Linux date command to check and set the correct time if necessary. Set the hardware clock to match the correct system time.

Set the system clock to the local date and time:

date MMDDhhmmYYYY

Update the hardware clock with current time of the system clock:

/sbin/hwclock --systohc

Note: Upon booting, ESX Server runs /etc/rc.d/init.d, which reads /etc/sysconfig/clock to set the system clock based on the hardware clock's current time and the configured time zone information. To synchronize ESX Server to an external time reference, see .

Once all this is done then you can set the vm's to Synchronize between the virtual machine and the console operating system by checking the box in vmtools.

Hope this helps.