NTP service auto start is not working in ESXi 7.0

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides information on how to resolve NTP auto startup issue.

Symptoms:

• NTP service auto start is not working in ESXi 7.0 
• Even though the start policy of NTP service is set as - start and stop with host, service remains in stopped state after a  reboot.
• This happens when

            ntpd is running and chkconfig ntpd is on
     
          and Go to [ Manage ]->[ System ]->[ Time & date ]->[ Edit NTP Settings and  click [SAVE] and close "Edit time configuration" window without changing any settings.

•   The /var/log/hostd.log will have below entries

2020-08-25T15:34:00.092Z info hostd[2100484] [Originator@6876 sub=Libs opID=esxui-e456-81ea user=root] NtpAgentConfigImpl: Updating NTP configuration file '/etc/ntp.conf'
2020-08-25T15:34:00.094Z info hostd[2100484] [Originator@6876 sub=Libs opID=esxui-e456-81ea user=root] Util: ForkExec(/bin/sh ++group=hostd-tmp,mem=40 -c "/etc/init.d/ntpd restart && /bin/chkconfig ntpd off") 4706548

 Note:The preceding log excerpts are only examples.Date,time and environmental variables may vary depending on your environment

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0.0

Cause

Current startup configuration state is not maintained.

Resolution

This is a known issue. Currently there is no resolution.

Workaround:
1.Change NTP service to public or internal NTP server (IP address or FQDN)
2.Change status of ntpd in chkconfig list
  >check the status of ntpd  by running the command: 
    chkconfig --list ntpd
  >It will be in off state, turn it on by running the command:
   chkconfig ntpd on
>After changing this, service stays in started state persistently across reboots.

Additional Information

Impact/Risks:
None