The "Synchronize time periodically" VM option is enabled after deploying Photon BYOI VM template

Products

• VMware Telco Cloud Automation

Issue/Introduction

The Photon BYOI VM templates come the Synchronize time periodically VM option disabled.

However, upon deploying a VM from the template with Telco Cloud Automation (TCA) 2.3, the Synchronize time periodically VM option gets enabled, which could lead to issues with other time management tools such as chronyd. 

Environment

2.3, 3.0

Cause

Whether or not Synchronize time periodically is enabled depends on whether PTP has been enabled via the Network Function.

• With PTP enabled, vmconfig will disable Synchronize time periodically to avoid conflicts.
• If PTP is not enabled, vmconfig will enable Synchronize time periodically as the default time sync tool.

 

Resolution

TCA 3.1 now supports NTP configurations for classy workload clusters. Synchronize time periodically will be disabled if NTP is configured.

Workaround

Enable PTP  via the Network Function.