Synchronizing the hypervisor and Service Processor time-of-day clocks to Time Reference Partition

You can ensure that the time-of-day clocks used by the hypervisor and Service Processor are accurate through the usage of one or more Time Reference Partitions (TRP). Whenever the time-of-day changes in the TRP, the hypervisor and the service processors time-of-day are updated to match the time that is specified by the TRP. The time of the TRP can be changed manually or can be managed by using the Network Time Protocol (NTP) support. NTP can be used to automatically ensure consistent time-of-day across multiple servers. When you designate a logical partition as a TRP, you must choose a logical partition that cannot be migrated to another server such as a Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) partition. More than one TRP can be specified per server and the longest running TRP is recognized as the TRP of the system.

You must be a super administrator to complete this task.

The service processor uses its time-of-day clock for time stamps of various error logs and events. The service processor has a battery backed clock so if an electrical outage occurs, the server can maintain the current time-of-day. Whenever a server is powered on, the hypervisor time-of-day clock is initialized from the time-of-day clock of the service processor. The hypervisor uses its time-of-day clock whenever a new partition is created. Newly created partitions start with the time-of-day clock of the hypervisor. After a logical partition is created, the time-of-day clock of the logical partition is separate from the time-of-day clock of the hypervisor (changes to the time of the hypervisor does not affect existing partitions).

To enable TRP on a partition, complete the following steps:

  1. In the navigation pane, open Systems Management and select Servers.
  2. Select the managed server of your choice in the navigation pane.
  3. In the work pane, select a logical partition and select Properties.
  4. Click the Settings tab.
  5. Select Enable for Time reference and click OK.
  6. Repeat steps 3 through 5 for any additional logical partitions.

    The HMC Classic interface is not supported in Hardware Management Console (HMC) Version 8.7.0, or later. The functions that were previously available in the HMC Classic interface are now available in the HMC Enhanced+ interface.

    When the HMC is at version 8.7.0, or later, complete the following steps to verify that the server supports partition suspension:
    1. In the navigation pane, click the Resources icon The icon represents the Resources function of the HMC.
    2. Click All Partitions. Alternatively, click All Systems. In the work pane, click the server name that has the logical partition. Click View System Partitions. The All Partitions page is displayed.
    3. In the work pane, select logical partition and click Actions > View Partition Properties. The Properties page is displayed.
    4. Click the General tab.
    5. Click the Advanced tab. In the Advanced Settings area, select the Enable Time Reference check box.
  7. Repeat steps c through e for any additional logical partitions.
Parent topic: Managing logical partitions


Last updated: Fri, July 05, 2019