Windows 2003 VM server with time offset more than a 367 days

[YuenChew]

I have a windows 2003 vm with time offset more than a 367 days.

I check the event logs, the server was sync with NTP server and was not syn with ESX host time.

below is the event logs:

The time service has set the time with offset 31712303 seconds.

kindly advise why there is offset time more than 367 days?

[vGuy]

Hi - Few things you can do to isolate the issue:

is it the issue with a single VM or multiple VMs?

Is it possible someone has changed the time on the VM (un)intentionally?

For such a large offset, I doubt Windows time service synchronization will actually work. I suggest to correct the time manually --> do a sync --> and monitor the situation. VMware's recommendation for guest OS time synch has changed few times but I think your method is inline with VMware's current recommendation on using ntp.

Note: Even while using NTP, the guest OS will still do one time sync with the hosts when using snapshot, cloning, suspend/resume operations, and etc..so it is important to have to your ESX/i hosts configured and in sync with a reliable time source.

hth!

[AWo]

Check the NTP time source.

Check the ESX host time (is it synched to the NTP time source, as well)?

Do only use one time sync mechanism in your guest (either NTP or SNTP Domain sync in case of Windows) or VMware Tools (sync to ESX host).

Watcht the time closely the next days.

AWo