Knowledge Base

The VMware Knowledge Base provides support solutions, error messages and troubleshooting guides
 
Search the VMware Knowledge Base (KB)   View by Article ID
 

Verifying time synchronization across an ESX/ESXi host environment (1003736)

Purpose

This article guides you through the process of verifying that the time for hosts in your environment are synchronized.

Resolution

Verifying time on VMware ESX

  1. To verify the time on an ESX host, enter the following command from the ESX host command line. Ensure that the correct time zone and date are displayed:

    # date

    Note    :     For adjusting the time zone, see Adjusting ESX Server Time Zone (1436) .

  2. Verify the time set in the hardware BIOS of the ESX/ESXi host if this host is experiencing difficulty keeping time, despite it having its time correctly set and successfully connected to running and correctly configured NTP server.

Synchronizing time on VMware ESX

The time must be synchronized if there are time discrepancies in the environment. The time can be set manually or maintained by using a Network Time Protocol (NTP) server. For synchronizing time using NTP, see Installing and Configuring NTP on VMware ESX Server (1339) or Guide to configure NTP on ESX servers (1003063) .
 
To set the time from the ESX command line manually, use the date -s command. For example, to set the date to 31 Jan 2012 18:00:00, type this command as the root user:
# date -s "31 Jan 2012 18:00:00"

To set the time from vSphere Client:
  1. Launch vSphere Client.
  2. Go to Configuration > Time Configuration > Properties.
  3. Input the correct Time and Date.
  4. Click Options.
  5. Click Restart on the Service Commands box.

Time Synchronization on the VMware Virtual Center Server and Windows 2003 Domain

To configure Microsoft Windows 2003 to use NTP time server, see the Microsoft knowledge base article 816042.
 
Note:The preceding link was correct as of April 6, 2010. If you find the link is broken, provide feedback and a VMware employee will update the link.

Tags

verify-time-synchronization

See Also

Update History

06/04/2010- Added ESX 4.0 to Products; Added link to KB 1003063.

Request a Product Feature

To request a new product feature or to provide feedback on a VMware product, please visit the Request a Product Feature page.

Feedback

  • 10 Ratings

Did this article help you?
This article resolved my issue.
This article did not resolve my issue.
This article helped but additional information was required to resolve my issue.
What can we do to improve this information? (4000 or fewer characters)
  • 10 Ratings
Actions
KB: