Please forgive if I ask a dumb question but I just started using VMware about a week or two ago.
We are moving a lot of our physical systems over to VM to be hosted on an esxi 5.1 server. The ones that we created virtual work fine, but the ones that we physical converted the time is off by 5 hours. I can change it and works fine till a reboot then the time is wrong. I have read though the forums and found a lot people say use a time server and that’s the problem this one is our DC and Time server. I went and checked the bios in the physical server and it is correct but not have a setting for Daylight savings or time zones. It is an IBM x3560 M4 server running EXSI 5.1.0, free license. And I am using just the Vsphere client to configure them.
The one that I created virtual they have the time correct. If I go check the box in VM settings to synch with host the time will be 5 hours off like physical.
Any ideas?
Thanks
The ESXi host itself does not have a time zone setting and runs on UTC+0 (Greenwich) time, but shows the time in the vSphere Client adjusted to your PC's time zone. For how to synchronize the ESXi host with a Windows DC, take a look at http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1035833.
Caution: If the DC itself runs as a virtual machine on the ESXi host, you need to use another - non-virtualized - time server!
André
so a time server cannot be vitalized?
Well, yes it can, and the DC will certainly serve as a time server for the domain members. However, you must not synchronize the ESXi host's time with the DC running on that host. This can cause severe time issues.
André
currently the host is not time sncyd any thing. I not sure how to do it.. I just have the time set in the Bios and converted the guest os to be aVM on it.
does that matter? or have I done something wrong.
Although it is best practice to enable NTP (see the KB article I mentioned before) you may also set the time on the host manually. However, you have to set the Greenwich time (UTC+0) rather than your local time. Be careful with changing the time from the vSphere Client GUI (or the CLI) though, this will have impact on the running VMs!!!
André
