Hardware, Linux, Networking: Cisco UCS Time Problem
So we have our new Cisco UCS system installed and a weird problem is showing up. The Cisco UCS Manager console shows the correct date (2010), but when setting up a new server, the date is incorrect. Also, an NTP server (working correctly) is set. Since we mainly run Linux here, the NTP service will not update the date/time from the NTP server because of how long the difference is between the system clock and NTP. Also, on a Windows 2008 install we had to manually adjust the time/date as well
This is not a major issue, just an annoyance. We also use RedHat Satellite server and can not join to the patch management system with the incorrect date. So my question is where does the OS get it’s bad time from? I figure that the OS gets the time from the bios and that the bios would obtaion the information from UCS Manger. That does not appear to be the case.
Below is an example of the issue:
Cisco UCS Time
Above in the bottom right corner shows the correct time and date in the Cisco UCS Manager.
Below you can see that the date shows 2009 on a freshly installed server in UCS. The difference of the time and day are due to screen shots taking a day apart, but you get the idea. It’s not 2009.
Cisco UCS Bios Time
Server has just been installed and booted. The command “date” is issued to see the current time.
[root@test-server02 build]# date Sat Aug 15 02:37:24 EDT 2009
As seen from above, the date is incorrect (2009). NTP needs to be updated, but the service must be stopped first, or else it will not accept the new time.
[root@test-server02 build]# /etc/init.d/ntpd stop Shutting down ntpd: [ OK ]
Once stopped, “ntpdate” is used to query an NTP server and adjust the local server time.
[root@test-server02 build]# ntpdate pool.ntp.org 27 Apr 14:36:23 ntpdate[5214]: step time server 70.86.250.6 offset 22075095.967480 sec
Now that the system time is correct, NTP service is restarted to
[root@test-server02 build]# /etc/init.d/ntpd start Starting ntpd: [ OK ]
From here on out, the time will be correct and sync with the NTP service withouth issue.
[root@test-server02 build]# date Tue Apr 27 14:36:40 EDT 2010
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Hardware, Linux, Networking: Cisco UCS Time Problem « Colocation … | VirtualizationDir - Top Virtualization Providers, News and Resources said this on April 29, 2010 at 2:22 am
Once the date is correct via NTP to the server, you can update the bios clock via:
[root@test-server02 build]# hwclock –systohc
Kevin Goodman said this on May 5, 2010 at 2:18 pm
Hi, we ran up into similar issue of inappropriate time in our virtual servers (SUSE Linux 10 SP3) over vSphere 4 U1 on Cisco UCS B200 M1.
Solution: Enable VMI (paravirtualisation support) at the VM end, and modify the standard kernel to vmikernel (select VMPAE kernel if need to address memory of 4 Gig or more)
This worked for us.
Raakesh Nagarajan said this on June 12, 2010 at 3:50 am
Did you ever come up with a resolution to the date not being correct on UCS? I’m experiencing the same issue in my environment and want to know what you did to remedy the problem.
Thad Van Ry said this on July 7, 2011 at 3:54 pm
Sorry for the delay. If I remember correctly, upgrading UCSM and the blades fixed the timing issue. What version are you currently running?
Kevin Goodman said this on July 25, 2011 at 1:50 pm