How to keep a VMWare VM's clock in sync?

Question

I have noticed that our VMWare VMs often have the incorrect time on them. No matter how many times I reset the time they keep on desyncing.

Has anyone else noticed t

Answer 1

In my case we are running VMWare Server 2.02 on Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard. The Host is also Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard. I had the VMware Tools installed and set to sync the time. I did everything imaginable that I found on various internet sites. We still had horrendous drift, although it had shrunk from 15 minutes or more down to the 3 or 4 minute range.

Finally in the vmware.log I found this entry (resides in the folder as the .vmx file): "Your host system does not guarantee synchronized TSCs across different CPUs, so please set the /usepmtimer option in your Windows Boot.ini file to ensure that timekeeping is reliable. See Microsoft KB http://support.microsoft.com/kb... for details and Microsoft KB http://support.microsoft.com/kb... for additional information."

Cause: This problem occurs when the computer has the AMD Cool'n'Quiet technology (AMD dual cores) enabled in the BIOS or some Intel multi core processors. Multi core or multiprocessor systems may encounter Time Stamp Counter (TSC) drift when the time between different cores is not synchronized. The operating systems which use TSC as a timekeeping resource may experience the issue. Newer operating systems typically do not use the TSC by default if other timers are available in the system which can be used as a timekeeping source. Other available timers include the PM_Timer and the High Precision Event Timer (HPET). Resolution: To resolve this problem check with the hardware vendor to see if a new driver/firmware update is available to fix the issue.

Note The driver installation may add the /usepmtimer switch in the Boot.ini file.

Once this (/usepmtimer switch) was done the clock was dead on time.