NTP Appliance for vSphere (ESXi)

NTP is a very simple service
You can install Meinberg NTP on vCenter (not on AD servers)
Or install Ubuntu 10.04 LTS on a new vm
Clients query it like once a day (windows) or once in an hour (printers)
http://ntp.org/ has detailed instructions on configuring either NTP server to acquire time from internet.
virtualization adds some inaccuracy to clocks, so I would prefer separate bare hardware machine to get 1/100 accuracy instead of 1/10, and USB GPS to get even better.
If you have multiple locations with independent net access you can construct NTP source in each.

NTP server for windows here: http://www.meinberg.de/english/sw/ntp.htm
it has no kernel colock speed adjustment like Linux, but with virtualization you will not notice the difference, BUT it has nice add-on to monitor clock drifting. I would recommend to gain some experience with this tool and then use findings to get final setup. And there is nothing preventing you from running it on your worksatation to compare virtual vs physical accuracy...
(i suppose any linux or bsd VA will have ntp server preinstalled)

yep, I knows all this.

NTP appliance for ESX/vSphere.

I was hoping to save some time, rather than "homebrew"/""cook" a solution myself.

I might as well, use an old Cisco 2500/2600, in the rack!

Does not take more than 5 minutes to install....

thanks but I was after a virtual appliance to do the job. (commerical or otherwise).

http://www.vmware.com/appliances/directory/1165

Not really primarily for NTP but it has it: http://www.vmware.com/appliances/directory/432323

Good Luck

Yes, Mandriva's minimum installation is smallest from major distributions
Steps to install same using latest Mandriva:
1) get full ISO Free 2010 Spring 64 bits (32bit also does)
2) Install minimum with urpmi on single / without allocating swap (256MB disk is enough to get to next release, but you might need to temporarily add memory)
3) install mandriva repositories as instructed on http://easyurpmi.zarb.org
4) urpmi --auto-update
5) urpmi ntpd

follow security at least twice a year....

http://www.vmware.com/appliances/directory/1165

@bgoering this is the one we've been using for years, but it's just stopped working, and no response to post in the forum, so doesn't look like it's supported anymore. Shame.

Try my instructions to rebuild appliance.
Use servers like 0.cc.pool.ntp.org where cc is your or neighboring country code and number goes up

Hmmm, I have three copies of that appliance (three different locations) and they all still work. What are the symptomes with yours?

the problem is the applicance has never download the random NTP servers, we don't know why, other than I suspect it doesn't like ISA/Proxy server, it has DNS and Gateway setup correctly.

but recently we have 6 locations in the UK, using the same NTP appliance, and we no longer get NTP responses from server

obtaining random ip's for pool.ntp.org has never worked at 6 locations in the UK.

but it's worked for years, since 2006 using IP 192.43.244.18 (time.nist.gov)

but now has stopped, because the Ref Source is invalid.

we have 1 site in the UK using this appliance, working well, because it pulls the list down with no error, but this is sat in a DMZ behind NATed router! (no firewalls or cascaded proxys)

if we knew, where the list was, we could pull it off this appliance and add to the others!

maybe this is off topic, and it would be best for new Q!

yep ISA is passing traffic!

it's very odd.

and I've not done anything on six sites, apart from restart the appliances again, and

time.nist.gov is now showing as valid in alll 6 of my setups with a refid of .ACTS.

so I don't know, what the hick-up is, unless it's further up the comms link!!!!

should read "wasn't really answered in response......"

The question was really answered in response to "anyone know of an NTP Appliance for ESXi/vSphere" which is not a hardware appliance and not the URL already tried.

But to be far points allocated to the Experts for their knowledge of NTP in this area.