vmware timekeeping

[Sean Cavanaugh]

----------------------------------------
> Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2008 15:48:46 -0500
> To: freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> From: jbiquez at icsmx.com
> Subject: Re: vmware timekeeping
> 
> At 03:23 p.m. 06/06/2008, you wrote:
>>I'm running FreeBSD 6.3-release as a guest on VMware ESX 3.0.2.  My 
>>problem is that the clock keeps *gaining* time.  I have the 
>>"timesync" option turned on in ESX's .vmx file, and I have 
>>"hint.apic.0.disabled=1" in my FreeBSD guest's /boot/loader.conf.
>>
>>I used to have "kern.hz=100" in loader.conf, but that caused the 
>>guest to gain time even faster.
>>
>>Does anyone have a good recipe for decent timekeeping in this config?
>>
>>Thanks.
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> 
> Hello all.
> 
> Here is something similar. Running 6.2 stable... but the clock lose 
> around 6 hours each day
> 
> JB
> 


The only good way of keeping time pretty set is to set up an NTP sync on the image to go off at decently constant rate (once every 3 hours or so). the vmware-tools will not synchronize the system clock.
I heard of someone trying to change the clock in BSD to only use the hardware clock as VMWare can reset that but never heard anything beyond that. 

-Sean