Configuring NTP in VMware ITBM Standard Appliance (1.0.1)

Published: February 28, 2014 General vRealize-LogInsight

Guys,

Recently I was deploying ITBM Standard suite and faced the following:

Purpose:

I need to configure a NTP server in ITBM Standard Appliance.

Reason:

There is a time drift between ITBM appliance and vCAC & Identity appliance, so ITBM registration with vCAC fails. [ vCAC & Identity appliance are configured to use NTP server]

Solution:

Need to update NTP configuration in ITBM appliance. Now like other appliances ITBM standard appliance does not provide any Time server setting in default https://<IP or FQDN>>:5480 location. Option provided in documentation is below:

Configure NTP Server

You can configure the Network Time Protocol (NTP) server for periodic time synchronization. NTP is an industry standard and ensures accurate timekeeping in your guest.

Procedure

Log in to the IT Business Management Standard Edition virtual machine console.
Navigate to /etc/ntp.conf and add the command.

server %my-ntp-server%
fudge %my-ntp-server% stratum int

server %my-ntp-server% is the IP address or full qualified domain name of the NTP server.
stratum int specifies the stratum number assigned to the driver in the range 0 to 15, both inclusive. This number overrides the default stratum number assigned by the driver.

Check the status of NTP server by running the chkconfig -a ntp command.
If the service is running, restart the service. If the service is not started, start the service by running the command: service ntp start
Disable the time synchronization by VMware Tools by running the /usr/bin/vmware-toolbox-cmd timesync disable command.
To verify the status of NTP server, run the ntpq -pn command.

This is a standard procedure for any *nix based system. What surprised me was there was no apparent editor in this appliance. I could not find vi /pico/nano or any of the standard text editors. So I had to take the following route (easiest route):

 $ cp /etc/ntp.conf /etc/ntp.conf.orig
 $ echo “server myserver.com” >> /etc/ntp.conf
 $ echo “fudge myserver stratum int 1” >> /etc/ntp.conf
 $ chkconfig –a ntp
 $ service ntp start
 $ ntpq -pn

May be something that I am overlooking as it is really unbelievable that appliance (SuSe) will come up without any text editor. The above will help you if you faced the same issue. Let me know if I am missing something or you have other ways.