Single Blog

Symptoms

• During the configuration of NTP settings from the Virtual Infrastructure Client (VI Client) in VirtualCenter 2.5 configuration fails and the error failed to change host configuration is displayed.
  
  

Purpose

Overview

The ability to configure NTP from the VI Client has been added in VirtualCenter 2.5 and ESX Server 3.5.

Configuration of NTP from the VI Client fails if the ESX Server host is configured to use a non-standard timezone as listed in the timezone description file. For example, if your server is set to ETC/GMT-5 instead of America/New_York configuration of NTP fails.

Upon further inspection of the /var/log/vmware/hostd.log on the ESX Server host, warnings similar to the following are displayed:

• Timezone ‘‘ not part of the tz database using the default timezone UTC , where is the value of that is being used for the timezone. For example, ETC/GMT-5.
• Timezone ‘UTC’ does not exist in the tz database.

Resolution

Note: Before you begin please refer to KB1003490for important information on restarting the mgmt-vmware service.

Verification of the problem

To check which timezone is being used on the ESX Server host:

1. Log in to your ESX Server host as root from either an SSH session or directly from the console of the server.
2. Type cat /etc/sysconfig/clock.

An output similar to the following appears:

[root@server]# cat /etc/sysconfig/clock
ZONE=”America/New_York”
UTC=true
ARC=false
[root@server]#

The timezone is listed in the ZONE= section of the output. Compare this value to the information listed in the TZ column of the /usr/share/zoneinfo/zone.tab file.

Note: All values are case sensitive. Ensure that the case is the same between the the clock file and the zone.tab file.

From the example above, when you look in the /usr/share/zoneinfo/zone.tab file, you see:

#country-
#code coordinates TZ comments
US +404251-0740023 America/New_York Eastern Time

If the value is not listed and you receive an error message, follow the steps in the workaround. If the value is listed in this file and you are still receiving this error message please contact VMware Support referencing this KB article for further assistance diagnosing the problem.

Workaround

To workaround this problem you need to ensure that your timezone is set to a value that is listed in the /usr/share/zoneinfo/zone.tab file.

Follow these steps to correct the behavior:

1. Log in to your ESX Server host as root from either an SSH session or directly from the console of the server.
2. Type less /usr/share/zoneinfo/zone.tab .
3. Review this file until you find the appropriate timezone. Take note of the value listed in the TZ column of this file. For example, America/New_York in the example listed in the verification section of this article.
4. Press the Q key to quit from less.
5. Type nano /etc/sysconfig/clock .
6. Change the ZONE= section of this file to be the value noted in Step 3.

   Note: All values are case sensitive. Ensure that the case is the same between the clock file and the zone.tab file.

7. Press Ctrl + X and save the changes when prompted.
8. Type service mgmt-vmware restart .

   Caution: Ensure Automatic Startup/Shutdown of virtual machines is disabled before running this command or you risk rebooting the virtual machines. For more information, see Restarting hostd (mgmt-vmware) on ESX Server Hosts Restarts Hosted Virtual Machines Where Virtual Machine Startup/Shutdown is Enabled (1003312) .