vCenter Upgrade Stage 2 Fails with NTP Synchronization Error

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• The vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) upgrade fails during Stage 2 of the deployment process. The installer halts with the following error message:

"The source vCenter Server Appliance cannot access the configured NTP servers: 1#.#.#.#9, 1#.#.#.8# or there is difference between the local time and the time returned from the NTP servers."

• The ntpd service on the source vCenter Appliance is confirmed to be running.
• NTP configurations are correctly defined in /etc/ntp.conf configuration file, but the clock drift exceeds the acceptable threshold for upgrade validation.
• Manually checking the local system time on the source vCenter will reveal the exact extent of the NTP drift.

Example: vCenter server appliance cannot automatically correct a 4 minute time difference quickly enough to satisfy installer.

Environment

vCenter Server 7.0.x
vCenter Server 8.0.x

Cause

Time desynchronization (clock drift) between the source vCenter Server Appliance and the target NTP servers.

Resolution

1. Log into the source vCenter Server Appliance via SSH as root.

2. Manually force the correct date and time using the following command:

   date -s "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS"

   Note: Replace with the exact current date and time of the NTP server.

3. Verify that the vCenter server appliance system time now matches the NTP server exactly using the date command.

4. Retry Stage 2 of the vCenter upgrade.