Domain Controller Continually Stopping and Restarting Time Service Advertising

I have a domain controller which stops and restarts advertising as a time source four times a day. The Event ID 142 (stopping) is immediately followed by a Event ID 139 (starting).  The PDC is located on the same subnet and doesn't experience this problem. The time configuration is set correctly in the Registry with the type NT5DS.

When I run W32tm /monitor is everything looks fine.

DC2.mydomain.com[[fe80::7dde:c75b:debc:7fbe%12]:123]:
    ICMP: 0ms delay
    NTP: +0.0019054s offset from DC1.mydomain.com
        RefID: DC1.mydomain.com [10.107.10.119]
        Stratum: 3

DCDIAG /test:Advertising shows no problems.

  Testing server: PIT\DC2
     Starting test: Advertising
        ......................... DC2 passed test Advertising

My event logs consistently show four daily occurrences of this issue:

Date and Time Source Event ID
7/29/2015 3:06 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 139 The time service has started advertising as a time source.
7/29/2015 3:05 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 142 The time service has stopped advertising as a time source because the local clock is not synchronized.
7/29/2015 3:05 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 139 The time service has started advertising as a time source.
7/29/2015 3:05 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 142 The time service has stopped advertising as a time source because the local clock is not synchronized.
7/29/2015 2:21 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 139 The time service has started advertising as a time source.
7/29/2015 2:21 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 142 The time service has stopped advertising as a time source because the local clock is not synchronized.
7/29/2015 2:21 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 139 The time service has started advertising as a time source.
7/29/2015 2:20 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 142 The time service has stopped advertising as a time source because the local clock is not synchronized.
7/28/2015 2:51 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 139 The time service has started advertising as a time source.
7/28/2015 2:51 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 142 The time service has stopped advertising as a time source because the local clock is not synchronized.
7/28/2015 2:51 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 139 The time service has started advertising as a time source.
7/28/2015 2:50 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 142 The time service has stopped advertising as a time source because the local clock is not synchronized.
7/28/2015 2:24 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 139 The time service has started advertising as a time source.
7/28/2015 2:24 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 142 The time service has stopped advertising as a time source because the local clock is not synchronized.
7/28/2015 2:24 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 139 The time service has started advertising as a time source.
7/28/2015 2:23 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 142 The time service has stopped advertising as a time source because the local clock is not synchronized.
7/27/2015 3:54 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 139 The time service has started advertising as a time source.
7/27/2015 3:54 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 142 The time service has stopped advertising as a time source because the local clock is not synchronized.
7/27/2015 3:54 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 139 The time service has started advertising as a time source.
7/27/2015 3:53 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 142 The time service has stopped advertising as a time source because the local clock is not synchronized.
7/27/2015 2:35 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 139 The time service has started advertising as a time source.
7/27/2015 2:35 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 142 The time service has stopped advertising as a time source because the local clock is not synchronized.
7/27/2015 2:35 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 139 The time service has started advertising as a time source.
7/27/2015 2:34 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 142 The time service has stopped advertising as a time source because the local clock is not synchronized.
7/26/2015 17:19 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 139 The time service has started advertising as a time source.
7/26/2015 17:18 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 142 The time service has stopped advertising as a time source because the local clock is not synchronized.
7/26/2015 17:18 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 139 The time service has started advertising as a time source.
7/26/2015 17:17 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 142 The time service has stopped advertising as a time source because the local clock is not synchronized.
7/26/2015 14:00 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 139 The time service has started advertising as a time source.
7/26/2015 14:00 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 142 The time service has stopped advertising as a time source because the local clock is not synchronized.
7/26/2015 14:00 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 139 The time service has started advertising as a time source.
7/26/2015 13:59 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 142 The time service has stopped advertising as a time source because the local clock is not synchronized.
7/25/2015 3:42 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 139 The time service has started advertising as a time source.
7/25/2015 3:42 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 142 The time service has stopped advertising as a time source because the local clock is not synchronized.
7/25/2015 3:42 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 139 The time service has started advertising as a time source.
7/25/2015 3:41 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 142 The time service has stopped advertising as a time source because the local clock is not synchronized.
7/25/2015 1:32 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 139 The time service has started advertising as a time source.
7/25/2015 1:32 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 142 The time service has stopped advertising as a time source because the local clock is not synchronized.
7/25/2015 1:32 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 139 The time service has started advertising as a time source.
7/25/2015 1:31 Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service 142 The time service has stopped advertising as a time source because the local clock is not synchronized.

Your thoughts would be appreciated.











































July 29th, 2015 2:22pm

Hi,

Please go through the link.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2468336

Also can you check the below & provide information on hardware is this physical or VM server?

-Is port UDP 123 opened by default on  servers? Please check your advanced firewall settings

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July 29th, 2015 3:10pm

Thanks. I check the troubleshooting steps on the KB 2468336 article and all checked out.

Port 123 is open and I am able to query the time on the domain controller using:  w32tm /stripchart /dataonly  /computer:DC1

This domain controller is hosted on a VMWare host. Could that be a problem?

July 30th, 2015 3:56pm

HI,

If DC is running on VMware then check the settings at VM side. it might be the case where you have to make some changes in VM or Esx end. please see the below KB

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1035833

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July 30th, 2015 5:37pm

I remember one settings I used it long back but not sure this will help if you are using VMware.

Virtual Local APIC Timer

VMware products fully emulate the local APIC timer on each virtual CPU. The timers frequency is not dependent on the hosts APIC timer frequency.

In most cases, the local APIC timer runs in apparent time, matching the other timer devices. However, some VMware products are able to recognize cases in which the guest operating system is using tickless timekeeping but has nevertheless set up a periodic local APIC timer interrupt. In these cases, the local APIC timer runs in a "lazy" mode, in which reading its counter returns the current apparent time but late APIC timer interrupts are allowed to pile up and merge rather than being accumulated as a backlog and causing apparent time to be held back until the backlog is caught up. Also, APIC timer interrupts on different virtual CPUs are allowed to occur slightly out of order.

Virtual ACPI Timer

VMware products fully emulate a 24-bit ACPI timer. The timer runs in apparent time, matching the other timer devices. It generates an interrupt when the high-order bit changes value.

This option increases the cost of emulating the RDTSC instruction, but should not otherwise harm performance. ESX 4.x does not provide exactly synchronized virtual TSCs by default. Instead, it provides approximately synchronized TSCs: the TSCs may be temporarily out of sync by a small amount, but they will not drift apart over the long term. The amount they may be out of sync is bounded by roughly two timer interrupt periods. This property makes the TSCs suitable for timekeeping in most guest operating systems, but may cause problems in guest operating systems that expect TSCs to be exactly
synchronized. ESX 4.x can be configured to provide exactly synchronized TSCs at the cost of decreased performance for guest TSC reads. To do this, add these configuration options to the VM's configuration: <o:p></o:p>

monitor_control.disable_tsc_offsetting=TRUE

monitor_control.disable_rdtscopt_bt=TRUE

timeTracker.forceMonotonicTTAT=TRUE
< o:p></o:p>

All three configuration options are necessary to ensure that the TSCs are exactly synchronized in ESX 4.x. These
options increase the cost of emulating the RDTSC instruction, but should not otherwise harm performance. <o:p></o:p>

  • Marked as answer by 10890lrl 9 hours 51 minutes ago
July 30th, 2015 5:45pm

Thanks for all the info.

I followed up on your ideas of disabling time synchronization from the VMWare client.   I ran this command:

VMwareToolboxCmd.exe timesync disable  from a command prompt.

My last Event ID 142 was the day I ran that command.  Hoping that solved the issue.

Thanks again for all your advice.

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August 3rd, 2015 5:17pm

Hi,

I am glade that your issue is resolved. Do keep posted in case of further query.

August 4th, 2015 2:11am

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