From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG  Thu Dec 17 21:40:20 2009
Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34])
	by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 985921065672
	for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>;
	Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:40:20 +0000 (UTC)
	(envelope-from korvus@comcast.net)
Received: from mx04.pub.collaborativefusion.com
	(mx04.pub.collaborativefusion.com [206.210.72.84])
	by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 631C08FC13
	for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>;
	Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:40:20 +0000 (UTC)
Received: from [192.168.2.164] ([206.210.89.202])
	by mx04.pub.collaborativefusion.com (StrongMail Enterprise
	4.1.1.4(4.1.1.4-47689)); Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:40:18 -0500
X-VirtualServerGroup: Default
X-MailingID: 00000::00000::00000::00000::::606
X-SMHeaderMap: mid="X-MailingID"
X-Destination-ID: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
X-SMFBL: ZnJlZWJzZC1xdWVzdGlvbnNAZnJlZWJzZC5vcmc=
Message-ID: <4B2AA541.5010304@comcast.net>
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:40:17 -0500
From: Steve Polyack <korvus@comcast.net>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-US;
	rv:1.9.1.5) Gecko/20091214 Thunderbird/3.0
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: Chuck Swiger <cswiger@mac.com>
References: <4B23CD8A.50203@webtent.com> <op.u4zhl8bq5wvplz@jam-laptop>
	<4B291EB5.5040605@webtent.com> <4B2A9C1E.2010509@comcast.net>
	<3D62B3FC-1385-47C2-A9F3-F81D1597D9A6@mac.com>
In-Reply-To: <3D62B3FC-1385-47C2-A9F3-F81D1597D9A6@mac.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Cc: Robert Fitzpatrick <robert@webtent.com>,
	FreeBSD <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Subject: Re: slow clock on FreeBSD 7.2 on vmware
X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5
Precedence: list
List-Id: User questions <freebsd-questions.freebsd.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions>, 
	<mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions>
List-Post: <mailto:freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
List-Help: <mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions>, 
	<mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:40:20 -0000

On 12/17/09 16:23, Chuck Swiger wrote:
> The "kern.hz=100" recommendation I can certainly agree with, but there is mostly no point in running ntpd or variants anywhere except on the host machine ("host ESX" for VMware, or Dom0 for Xen).  For VMware, the vmtools stuff should provide a mechanism to sync time in VMs to the host clock.
>
>    

I haven't used Xen, but for ESX: I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure 
that the vmtools available for FreeBSD do not support synchronizing the 
host time to the guest OS.  I know it is supported (and works) for 
Linux, but by what mechanism I do not know.  On OpenBSD the kernel can 
be built to present a device which will use the "synchronize time with 
guest" feature of VMware to provide a clock source which can be 
specified in ntpd.conf.

Perhaps you're right and all it takes is the switch in ESX.  I've 
disabled ntpd on one of my VMs and I'll see if it drifts any by tomorrow.