Is it possible to get ntpd working on a virtual machine?

Question

Our development team has just recently started using virtual machines to develop on and one issue we are having is keeping the clocks sync'd. I remember in the past there was an issue with ntpd not working on virtual machines. I also recall it not being a good idea to put ntpdate in as a cron. So my question is, is there another solution to this? Or am i stuck putting in ntpdate into the crontab?

Answer 1

Time is a little more complicated in virtual environments. I would suggest reading the vmware whitepaper on timekeeping.

They have thought this issue through quite thoroughly, including recommended options for ntp and using the vmware tools time support.

Answer 2

Install VMWare tools and set

tools.syncTime = "TRUE"

in your *.vmx file, this lives in your vm install dir

Vmware-Tools and time synchronization