On 12/18/09 12:39, Chuck Swiger wrote:
Hi--
On Dec 18, 2009, at 9:24 AM, Steve Polyack wrote:
I haven't used Xen, but for ESX: I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that the vmtools
available for FreeBSD do not support synchronizing the host time to the guest OS. I know
it is supported (and works) for Linux, but by what mechanism I do not know. On OpenBSD
the kernel can be built to present a device which will use the "synchronize time
with guest" feature of VMware to provide a clock source which can be specified in
ntpd.conf.
Perhaps you're right and all it takes is the switch in ESX. I've disabled ntpd
on one of my VMs and I'll see if it drifts any by tomorrow.
FYI the system has started to drift on the order of 100ms every 6 hours.
OK.
This leads me to believe that the "synchronize time with guest" feature of ESXi
is not sufficient in FreeBSD with VMware tools. While using NTP, the system would
reliably keep in sync within 30ms of local NTP relays.
You supposedly need to re-run it periodically or enable an internal in some .vmx config
file; see "Enabling Periodic Synchronization":
http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vmware_timekeeping.pdf
Even with the following set in the virtual machine's .vmx configuration
file, the clock still drifts without ntpd:
tools.syncTime = "TRUE"
$ ntpdate -q pool.ntp.org
server 209.114.111.1, stratum 2, offset -2.093494, delay 0.10614
server 66.250.45.2, stratum 2, offset -2.082546, delay 0.04468
server 169.229.70.201, stratum 3, offset -2.092357, delay 0.11055
21 Dec 11:29:06 ntpdate[12781]: step time server 66.250.45.2 offset
-2.082546 sec
The vmware_timekeeping.pdf document also states that "By default, the
daemon checks the guest operating system clock only once per minute.",
meaning that we shouldn't have to adjust any of the other options to
maintain synchornization.
If this doesn't work in FreeBSD guest VMs, has anyone filed a bug report with
them?
I have not filed a bug report. I'm using open-vm-tools and have not
tried the VMware-provided tools yet. I'll give them a shot if I get a
chance and I'll see if will actively sync the time by itself.
Can anyone else chime in on whether or not the "tools.syncTime" option
and setting kern.hz=100 have been sufficient in keeping the time in sync
with a FreeBSD guest?
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