[ale] Forcing NTPD to set time

[Jeff Lightner]

I couldn't really comment VMWare's workings as my comments as noted were
based on what I'd seen on dual boot (Windoze/Linux) systems.

However, on doing a quick Google search it appears your issue is common
on VMWare guest systems.  This post on Red Hat's site seems like it
might lead you to the correct answer (even if you're not running
RedHat):
http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/FAQ_43_9259.shtm


-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Fowler [mailto:cfowler at outpostsentinel.com] 
Sent: Monday, April 21, 2008 10:14 AM
To: Jeff Lightner
Cc: ale at ale.org
Subject: RE: [ale] Forcing NTPD to set time

I've seen RTC issues with Vmware when running multiple virtual machines.
Maybe this is in the free versions like player and server?

On Mon, 2008-04-21 at 10:00 -0400, Jeff Lightner wrote:
> You wouldn't really want it to correct regardless of diff.  It can
have
> disastrous results on some running things (especially databases).
> 
> In normal running with ntp setup it shouldn't get to that big a
> difference so you probably want to find out why it is such a
difference.
> 
> One thing I've noticed on dual boot setups is that Windoze and Linux
> deal with the hardware clock differently if you've turned on UTC time
in
> the BIOS.  It might be similar for VMWare if the virtual machines are
> Windoze.
> 
> I'd recommend:
> 1) Reboot server go into BIOS setup.
> 2) Turn OFF UTC in BIOS clock settings.
> 3) Boot up the VMWare
> 4) Set the system time manually with the date command.
> 5) Start NTP and insure it updates.  (See ntpdate command for quick
> update.)
> 5) Set the hardware clock time with the hwclock command.
> 6) Start the virtual machines and insure they have the correct time.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of
> Chris Fowler
> Sent: Monday, April 21, 2008 9:13 AM
> To: ale at ale.org
> Subject: [ale] Forcing NTPD to set time
> 
> I've got a VM running at our of our developer's house and I see it can
> access the RTC.  I believe he has more than one VM running on that
> server.   I also see that NTPD will NOT correct the time.  Here is
what
> I do in rc.local on that machine to get the time correct
> 
> /etc/init.d/ntpd stop
> /usr/sbin/ntpdate pool.ntp.org
> /etc/init.d/ntpd start
> 
> I've noticed on some machines that ntpd will complain that the diff is
> so bad the time must be corrected manually.  Is there an option to
force
> ntpd to set the time regardless of diff?
> 
> Chris
> 
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