Force ESXi to sync time against defined NTP server

[MRoushdy]

Hello,

To my understanding, ESXi host joined to AD domain syncs time from a domain controller. I want a domain-joined host to sync time only from the defined NTP server(s) defined in the host time settings. NTP service is started on the host.

[ThompsG]

Hi MRoushdy,

While you can synchronise time with a domain controller this doesn’t happen automatically. You still need to configured the NTP client on the ESXi server. See this link for the requirements to allow ESX to use a domain controller for time: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1035833

Kind regards.

[MRoushdy]

I have this huge time difference between many hosts ad the NTP server. Restarting the ntpd service didn't sync the time.

[ThompsG]

Hi there,

Because your time difference is large between ESXi and NTP server it will take some time for the time to be corrected. The “reach” column is indicating that ESXi is successfully getting time from the sources so that is good.

If you check again now the ”reach” should have increased which will be indicating successful synchronisation. The main issue will be the time to correct this difference which could be quite a while as it will slew time until corrected.

Kind regards.