That would be a problem if you want the host to run on GMT (or even the server's local time), but you want a guest to run on the users local timezone.
Interestingly enough, the guests in my VMWare Workstation 5 keep their time separate from the host. But I've confirmed that the guests in my ESX 3.0.1 do not.
In the advanced config, you're supposed to be able to set the following attribute in VirtualCenter:
tools.syncTime: FALSE
This prevents it from syncing while the guest tools are loaded. But even with that set, my guests lose their own time each time theyre restarted.
\[root@vc-vm-rgesx3 netpipes]# date -s 10:01:01
Thu Nov 16 10:01:01 CST 2006
\[root@vc-vm-rgesx3 netpipes]# /sbin/hwclock --systohc
(((booted guest, XP Pro -- time showed up as 10:04AM)))
\[root@vc-vm-rgesx3 netpipes]# /usr/sbin/ntpdate -b tick.uh.edu
16 Nov 11:23:11 ntpdate\[24769]: step time server 129.7.1.66 offset 4619.688717 sec
Confirmed what you're seeing though: I ran "hwclock --systohc" again, and the guest continued keeping its time independently of the ESX server. However, on a poweroff, the guest OS displayed the time of the ESX server again.
Only way I can think around this in the meantime, is that you can set the guest to its local timezone and then sync the clock (NTP protocol) to a public timeserver (i.e. time.windows.com or tick.uh.edu) rather than to the ESX host, which it seems you don't want the clock to sync with anyway.
Doing that anyway, the guest displays the timezone I set it as, but on a server thats a particularily irksome proposition, as on bootup, all of my events and timestamps are going to match the ESX host until it syncs with an NTP server. Search the forums for "tools.syncTime" and see if you can find some tips on others peoples experience with this, it might be worth submitting an SR on this if it isnt a known issue.
