VMware ESX 4.0 - INSTALLATION GUIDE UPDATE 1 Installation Manual page 25

Table 3-1. Data for ESX Installation (Continued)
Data
Bootloader kernel
options
Bootloader
password
NTP server
VMware, Inc.
Required or
Optional Default
Optional None
Optional None
Optional None.
By default, if you do not enter
an NTP server name or IP
address, the installer uses the
system date and time, which
you can modify.
Chapter 3 Introduction to Installing ESX
Comments
In the advanced setup, you can specify kernel
arguments to be written to the grub.conf file
and passed to the kernel every time ESX boots.
In the advanced setup, you can specify a
bootloader password up to 30 characters.
ESX uses the hardware battery-backed clock to
keep time while the system is powered off. ESX
always maintains the battery-backed clock in
UTC, even if you have set the service console to
display time in your local time zone. Therefore,
if you install ESX on a machine whose battery-
backed clock was not previously set to UTC, ESX
initializes the system time to an incorrect value
when it first boots. Once you correct the system
time, however, ESX saves it to the battery-backed
clock, and the time will be correct on subsequent
boots. For best accuracy, VMware recommends
using NTP to correct and maintain the system
time.
For text-mode and graphical-mode installations,
you can enter an NTP server name at installation
time.
This feature is not available in scripted
installation (unless you script it in a %post
section). After installation, you can use the
vSphere Client to configure the host to use an
NTP server.
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