asked on

Vm instance keeps losing time

Hello EE,

I have a 2012 r2 web server vm instance running in a vmware environment . The server is in a dmz and uses ntp to synchronize . Strangely, the server will consistently "lose time" , the time will be off by 20 mins . I checked the time-service event sand see event 36 only as a warning event. Previously, I used time.nist.gov as a synch source but changed to time-a.nist.gov . Is there maybe something with the time on the underlying hardware of the vm ?

C:\Windows\system32>W32TM /query /status
Leap Indicator: 0(no warning)
Stratum: 2 (secondary reference - syncd by (S)NTP)
Precision: -6 (15.625ms per tick)
Root Delay: 0.0312707s
Root Dispersion: 7.7756253s
ReferenceId: 0x81060F1C (source IP: 129.6.15.28)
Last Successful Sync Time: 9/10/2015 2:52:51 PM
Source: time-a.nist.gov,0x9
Poll Interval: 10 (1024s)

Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)

this is not syncing with the host via VMware Tools ?

SOLUTION

Wayne88

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davesnb

ASKER

so if I understand correctly , I should disable the timesync with the host system using the vmware tools to not reference the host time which is likely outside of the offset. This will allow for the independent time keeping on the guest instance using ntp. If that is the case wha ti sthe actual command , i tried searching in the directory as detailed below with no luck.

utility-name timesync subcommand
For subcommand, use enable or disable.

01/16/2015 06:22 PM <DIR> .
01/16/2015 06:22 PM <DIR> ..
09/01/2014 05:46 AM 870,104 deployPkg.dll
09/01/2014 05:47 AM 670,936 gio-2.0.dll
09/01/2014 05:47 AM 1,302,744 glib-2.0.dll
09/01/2014 05:47 AM 781,528 glibmm-2.4.dll
09/01/2014 05:47 AM 26,328 gmodule-2.0.dll
09/01/2014 05:46 AM 355,032 gobject-2.0.dll
09/01/2014 05:47 AM 36,568 gthread-2.0.dll
09/01/2014 05:46 AM 107,224 hgfs.dll
09/01/2014 05:46 AM 1,180,888 iconv.dll
09/01/2014 05:46 AM 9,609,648 icudt44l.dat
09/01/2014 05:47 AM 114,904 intl.dll
01/16/2015 06:22 PM <DIR> messages
09/01/2014 05:46 AM 1,267,472 open_source_licenses.txt
01/16/2015 06:22 PM <DIR> plugins
09/01/2014 05:46 AM 280 poweroff-vm-default.bat
09/01/2014 05:46 AM 280 poweron-vm-default.bat
09/01/2014 05:46 AM 457 resume-vm-default.bat
09/01/2014 05:47 AM 113,368 rpctool.exe
09/01/2014 05:47 AM 77,824 sigc-2.0.dll
09/01/2014 05:46 AM 459 suspend-vm-default.bat
09/01/2014 05:46 AM 14,194 vm-support.vbs
01/16/2015 06:22 PM <DIR> vmStatsProvider
09/01/2014 05:47 AM 744,664 vmtools.dll
09/01/2014 05:46 AM 74,456 vmtoolsd.exe
09/01/2014 05:47 AM 237,272 VMToolsHook.dll
09/01/2014 05:46 AM 309,464 VMToolsHook64.dll
09/01/2014 05:46 AM 17,112 VMToolsHookProc.exe
09/01/2014 05:56 AM 1,184 VmUpgradeHelper.bat
09/01/2014 05:46 AM 81,624 VMwareHostOpen.exe
09/01/2014 05:47 AM 52,440 VMwareResolutionSet.exe
09/01/2014 05:47 AM 41,176 VMwareToolboxCmd.exe
09/01/2014 05:47 AM 148,184 VMwareXferlogs.exe
01/16/2015 06:22 PM <DIR> win32
01/16/2015 06:22 PM <DIR> win64
09/01/2014 05:46 AM 143,064 zip.exe
30 File(s) 18,380,878 bytes
7 Dir(s) 5,528,969,216 bytes free

Frank Helk

That's correct. Disable the VM from syncing with the Host and stay with NTP.

Currently the VM is using two timekeeping services concurrently, which inevitably leads to strange time behaviour and effects.

I would further recommend to use the servers at pool.ntp.org for reference. That way you'd have more redundance in the time sources. See my article on NTP for more information.

davesnb

ASKER

Ok great, and thanks for the information on ntp . Can you please provide the command in question for disabling the time synch for vmware tools ?

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Wayne88

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davesnb

ASKER

Excellent thanks

Wayne88

You're welcome. Cheers!