Time is Off When Using GWAVA Appliance on VMware

How do I keep the time synchronized or stop NTP from unloading?

Sometimes the time in a virtual machine can drift pretty far from the actual time because it is in a virtual environment and not on real hardware. NTP has a built-in panic or tolerance threshold where it will not correct the time if the time is off by more than 1000 seconds. If NTP sees that the time is off by more than 1000 seconds it will assume that something has gone very wrong and will shut itself down.

To verify that this is what is happening to you, do the following:

1) Verify that NTP isn't running by running the following command:

rcntp status

If you get a results that show NTP is Dead, "Checking for network time protocol daemon (NTPD):  dead",  then continue to Step 2.

2) Tail the NTP log by running the following command:

tail /var/log/ntp

Look at the last line in the log. If line reads similar to the following, then proceed with the Step 3 below:

30 Jun 20:51:37 ntpd[2331]: time correction of -2970 seconds exceeds sanity limit (1000); set clock manually to the correct UTC time

Steps to prevent NTP from unloading:

             3) Edit  /etc/ntp.conf, by running:

vi /etc/ntp.conf

4) Type i (for insert)

5) At the top line hit enter and type the following:

tinker panic 0

6) Hit escape :wq

7) Load NTP by typing:

rcntp start

This should keep NTP from dying, which in turn should keep the time from getting way off.

This article was originally published in the GWAVA knowledgebase as article ID 1321.