vCenter service fails to start due to ntp Time Synchronization failure

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

VAMI and vCenter are inaccessible

Environment

vSphere 8.x

Cause

The services failing due to the vCenter time synchronization is wrong 

For Ex: Currently it is Feb 2026, when the KB was created

root@vcsa [ /var/log/vmware/vmon ]# date
Day Month DD HH:MM:SS PM UTC 2022

ntpd fails to synchronize the time.

root@vcsa [ / ]# systemctl status ntpd
● ntpd.service - Network Time Service
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/ntpd.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
     Active: inactive (dead)
       Docs: man:ntpd

root@vcsa [ / ]# systemctl start ntpd

root@vcsa [ / ]# systemctl status ntpd
● ntpd.service - Network Time Service
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/ntpd.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
     Active: active (running) since Day 2022-MM-DD HH:MM:SS UTC; 5s ago
       Docs: man:ntpd
    Process: 67319 ExecStart=/usr/bin/ntpd -g -u ntp:ntp (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   Main PID: 67322 (ntpd)
      Tasks: 2 (limit: 36046)
     Memory: 2.7M
     CGroup: /system.slice/ntpd.service
             └─67322 /usr/bin/ntpd -g -u ntp:ntp

Month DD HH:MM:SS vcsa.domain.com ntpd[67322]: gps base set to 2023-06-18 (week 2267)
Month DD HH:MM:SS vcsa.domain.com ntpd[67322]: restrict default: KOD does nothing without LIMITED.
Month DD HH:MM:SS vcsa.domain.com ntpd[67322]: Listen and drop on 0 v6wildcard [::]:123
Month DD HH:MM:SS vcsa.domain.com ntpd[67322]: Listen and drop on 1 v4wildcard 0.0.0.0:123
Month DD HH:MM:SS vcsa.domain.com ntpd[67322]: Listen normally on 2 lo 127.0.0.1:123
Month DD HH:MM:SS vcsa.domain.com ntpd[67322]: Listen normally on 3 eth0 10.224.79.181:123
Month DD HH:MM:SS vcsa.domain.com ntpd[67322]: Listening on routing socket on fd #20 for interface updates
Month DD HH:MM:SS vcsa.domain.com ntpd[67322]: kernel reports TIME_ERROR: 0x41: Clock Unsynchronized
Month DD HH:MM:SS vcsa.domain.com ntpd[67322]: kernel reports TIME_ERROR: 0x41: Clock Unsynchronized
Month DD HH:MM:SS vcsa.domain.com systemd[1]: Started Network Time Service.

Resolution

•    Place the Cluster DRS configuration to Manual
•    vMotion VCSA VM to another host with correct ntp configuration 
•    Reboot/Power On the VM, now the services and the ntp time should be working correctly.

root@vcsa [ ~ ]# date
Day Feb DD HH:MM:SS PM UTC 2026

Additional Information

In case applmgmt service is Up (Unlikely condition), follow the KB.

* Default date filter on the vCenter Events page of the vSphere Client is fixed to a specific date.
https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/421621/default-date-filter-on-the-vcenter-event.html