I'm having an issue on ESXi3_u5 where windows server 2003 VMs, when they boot, are getting their time updated by vmwareservice.exe (vmware tools). I have vmware tools installed to the host and specifically unchecked the box that performs time sync between the vm and esx host in the vmware tools gui under "misc" on the windows VM.
So my question is, what other configuration information am I missing that is syncing the time of the windows vm with teh esxi host at boot?
thanks
Pete
Never mind. I found it: page 16
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Disabling All Synchronization
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It is normal for a guest operating system's clock to be behind real time whenever the virtual machine is stopped
for a while and then continues running-in particular, after a suspend and resume, snapshot and revert to
snapshot, disk shrink, or VMotion operation. Therefore, if VMware Tools is installed in a guest operating
system, the VMware Tools daemon corrects the guest operating system clock after these events occur, even if
periodic time synchronization is turned off.
Occasionally, you may need to test a guest operating system with its clock set to some value other than real
time. Some examples include setting a virtual machine's date to 1999 to work around Y2K problems in legacy
software or setting a virtual machine to various times to test date printing routines. You may want to have the
virtual machine show the same time whenever it is powered on, to specify a constant offset from real time, or
to synchronize a virtual machine with a Microsoft Windows domain controller whose time is out of sync with
the host machine on which the virtual machine is running.
VMware Tools can synchronize guest operating systems only to the real time as maintained by the host
operating system, so you need to disable VMware Tools clock synchronization completely if you want to
maintain a fictitious time in a guest operating system.
VMware Tools automatically updates the guest operating system's time to match the host operating system's
time in a few other cases in which the guest can be expected to have lost a large amount of time, even if periodic
clock synchronization is turned off. To maintain a fictitious time, you need to set the following options to
FALSE.
tools.syncTime = FALSE
time.synchronize.continue = FALSE
time.synchronize.restore = FALSE
time.synchronize.resume.disk = FALSE
time.synchronize.shrink = FALSE
time.synchronize.tools.startup = FALSE
Information on these settings is also available in VMware knowledge base article 1189
(http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1189).
Table 3 shows what each option controls.
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NOTE In some product versions, you may have to use 0 in place of FALSE.
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Table 3. Time Synchronization Settings in the Configuration File
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Option Effect
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tools.syncTime If set to TRUE, the clock syncs periodically.
time.synchronize.continue If set to TRUE, the clock syncs after taking a snapshot.
time.synchronize.restore If set to TRUE, the clock syncs after reverting to a snapshot.
time.synchronize.resume.disk If set to TRUE, the clock syncs after resuming from suspend and after migrating
to a new host using the VMware VMotion feature.
time.synchronize.shrink If set to TRUE, the clock syncs after defragmenting a virtual disk.
time.synchronize.tools.startup If set to TRUE, the clock syncs when the tools daemon starts up, normally while
the guest operating system is booting.
For Esxi Experience You Should Follow This Instruction
1) Turn Off Machine
2) Find .Vmx Of Machine
3) Download .Vmx Of Machine
4) Delete .Vmx Of Machine
5) Edit .Vmx set tools.syncTime = "FALSE"
6) Upload new .Vmx Of Machine
7) Turn On Machine
This thread is more than 10 years old, I hope the person who posted it no longer has the issue.