The system must use at least two time sources for clock synchronization.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
GEN000242-ESXI5-000079	GEN000242-ESXI5-000079	GEN000242-ESXI5-000079_rule		Medium

Description
A synchronized system clock is critical for the enforcement of time-based policies and the correlation of logs and audit records with other systems. For redundancy, two time sources are required so that synchronization continues to function if one source fails.

STIG	Date
VMware ESXi v5 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2013-01-15

Details

Check Text ( C-GEN000242-ESXI5-000079_chk )
From the vSphere Client: Select the host and click "Configuration >> Time Configuration". Select the properties link and chose 'Options'. Select NTP Settings to view configured NTP servers. If less than two servers or external reference clocks (127.127.x.x other than 127.127.1.0 or 127.127.1.1) are listed, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-GEN000242-ESXI5-000079_fix)
From the vSphere Client: Select the host and click "Configuration >> Time Configuration". Select the properties link and chose 'Options'. From the General tab start the NTP service and select "Start and stop with host". From the NTP Settings tab click the ' Add' button to add the second organization-defined NTP servers.