VDS Date and Time Fall Out of Sync

[IAF SDS]

Every time I set the time on our VDS, it falls out of sync within a day or so.

I use START > Settings > Control Panel > Date and Time

I have Automatically synchronize with an Internet time server enabled, but eventually the server time gets shown one day ahead of what it should and the synchronize won't work when the date is wrong.

Having the wrong date and time throws off my ProCon logs.

[kraze]

You may try doing something like this:

http://www.pretentiousname.com/timesync/index.html

I use it on a VDS here and it works great.

[Edge100x]

Contrary to what that post says, on my personal machine (which was frequently drifting quite a bit out of sync), I set SpecialPollInterval and it worked perfectly to fix the problem. That is what I would recommend trying first.

Specifically, the registry key for that is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\W32Time\TimeProviders\NtpClient\SpecialPollInterval. It is a REG_DWORD, and I modified it to 3600 (E10 in hex) on my install, which worked to make it check hourly.

[IAF SDS]

Im struggling here and have no idea how to do what you suggested as the first thing to try.

I even tried to do what kraze said, but I don't think the instructions at http://www.pretentiousname.com/timesync/index.html apply to the 2003 server we have on the VDS. I can't even find how to open the section of the task scheduler as shown in the screenshots.
Today I found the VDS two days off. This is frustrating.

John, would you please do it for me and set SpecialPollInterval to check hourly the way you suggested?


Specifically, the registry key for that is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\W32Time\TimeProviders\NtpClient\SpecialPollInterval. It is a REG_DWORD, and I modified it to 3600 (E10 in hex) on my install, which worked to make it check hourly.

[Edge100x]

I can't do it for you on an unmanaged VDS, but you should be able to do it by opening regedit.exe and finding the key, then adjusting it there. After adjusting it, you will likely have to reboot the VDS for the change to take effect.

[IAF SDS]

This is really frustrating.

I have no idea what you're talking about, or how to do this.

Please give me step by step instructions.

How do I find regedit.exe? How do I find the key within it?

[Edge100x]

The steps I gave in my last two posts are actually just what you needed to do. Here they are with numbers to the side.

1. Start->Run->regedit.exe (in Win2k3), or just Start->regedit.exe (in Win2k8+).
2. Navigate to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\W32Time\TimeProviders\NtpClient" in the folder structure.
3. On the right-hand side, find "SpecialPollInterval". Double-click it and change the number to "E10" in hex.
4. Close regedit and reboot the VDS.

(Help on regedit is also readily available on the internet, if you need a better description of how to use that utility specifically.)

[IAF SDS]

Thank you for providing the above step by step instructions.

I did it and it shows the next sync is now 1 hour from when I synced it.

Thanks guys.