A new time provider plugin vmwTimeProvider is provided for Microsoft Windows native time synchronization service 'W32Time' running inside vSphere VMs. The plugin interacts with precision clock virtual device to provide underlying ESXi host time, as an alternative to NTP and Active Directory based time sources.

Prerequisites

Ensure to add a precision clock virtual device to the VM before using the vmwTimeProvider plugin.
Note: For information on how to add a precision clock virtual device to a VM, see vSphere Virtual Machine Administration document.

Procedure

  • Enable vmwTimeProvider plugin:
    To add this plugin, explicitly select the VMware Time Provider component in the VMware Tools installer setup during installation. This component is de-selected, by deafult.
  • Disable vmwTimeProvider plugin:
    To remove this plugin, modify the installation and de-select the VMware Time Provider component in the VMware Tools installer.

What to do next

You can check the status of the plugin post installation by running the following w32time command:

w32tm /query /status