vSphere ESXi 7.0 U3 and later versions NTP configuration steps loading a text file containing NTP configuration commands

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Starting with ESXI 7.0 Update 3, the /etc/ntp.conf file must not be edited manually when configuring NTP on an ESXI host. Key parameters can be configured through the UI and/or command line. If optional commands, such as "tos maxdist 30," need to be added to /etc/ntp.conf, a text file containing the NTP configuration commands must be created and loaded into the ESXI NTP configration using the esxcli command.

For more information, see vSphere ESXi 7.0 U3 and later versions configuration files for NTP and PTP can no longer be edited.

 

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0.3

Resolution

To configure specific parameters for NTP on ESXi 7.0 U3 and later versions, the ESXI NTP configuration file must be loaded using the esxcli command rather than editing /etc/ntp.conf directly.

Example:

[root@localhost:~] vi /scratch/ntpconfig.txt
[root@localhost:~] cat /scratch/ntpconfig.txt
server ntpserver.yourdomain.com
tos maxdist 30
[root@localhost:~] esxcli system ntp set -f /scratch/ntpconfig.txt
[root@localhost:~] esxcli system ntp set -e 1