vSAN Skyline Health Alert: "Time is synchronized across hosts and VC"
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vSAN Skyline Health Alert: "Time is synchronized across hosts and VC"

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Article ID: 326424

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Updated On: 07-15-2025

Products

VMware vSAN

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

  • The newly added vSAN node time in the Cluster is out of sync with other active nodes in the vSAN cluster. 

  • During the quickstart process, the time is synchronized across hosts and VC; the alert shows up under Configure.

  • This health check validates the time difference between the vCenter Server and ESXi hosts. 

  • vSAN Witness Appliance time sync issue.
  •  NTP services are not started for the Witness host




Environment

VMware vCenter 7.0.x
VMware vCenter 8.0.x

Cause

This issue occurs when there is a time synchronization discrepancy between the vCenter Server and one or more ESXi hosts. If the time difference exceeds 60 seconds, it can trigger Time sync health alerts on vSAN.

Note: It is always strongly recommended to have a consistent time synced across your environment, including but not limited to your ESXi hosts, vCenter Appliance, or any other workload. Time differences across an environment can cause unintended side effects.

Resolution

To resolve time synchronization issues across the vCenter Server and ESXi hosts, follow the steps below:

  • Enable and Configure NTP:

    Ensure that the NTP (Network Time Protocol) service is enabled and properly configured on all ESXi hosts and the vCenter Server. This helps maintain consistent time settings across the environment. You can also manually synchronize the time settings if necessary.

  • Restart the NTP Service (if already enabled)

    If NTP is already configured but the issue persists, try restarting the NTP daemon on the affected systems using the following command:

     /etc/init.d/ntpd restart