In my default configuration, time was running way too fast in VMware linux guests. After spending hours of searching howto solve the problem, I finally found a few different points that might work as a solution.

Enviroment:
Host: SuSE Linux 10.1
Guest: SuSE Linux 10.1
VMware Server: 1.0.2

• Install the vmware-tools on the guest.
  Don’t forget to install the kernel-sources if you have to recompile some modules.
• Insert clock=pit into the guest’s kernel boot options.
  When you’re using grub, it kinda looks like this:
  kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda3 apm=off acpi=off clock=pit
• Set tools.syncTime = “TRUE” in your virtual machine .vmx-file
  (found on the host machine [default in /var/lib/vmware/..])
  Your guest has to be rebooted to activate this setting.
• Finally, I had to change a little thing on the host machine:
  Disable powersaved (or powernowd or whatever applies to you)

From that time on, my guests are perfectly in sync with the host’s time.

Note: Nov, 23th 2007: .. or not … time is still too fast on some virtual machines : (

Next thing I tried right now is to add the following lines in /etc/vmware/config:
host.cpukHz = 2200000
host.noTSC = TRUE
ptsc.noTSC = TRUE
Where 2200000 (2,2 GHz) is the max speed of the host cpu.

+ Updated to VMware Server 1.0.4
^^ At first sight, this works perfectly for me : )

Useful Links:

• VMTN (VMware Technology Network)
• Timekeeping in VMware Virtual Machines
• Uhrzeit läuft im Gastsystem viel zu schnell (de)