From owner-freebsd-xen@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jan 5 16:40:10 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-xen@hub.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DB16510656A3 for ; Wed, 5 Jan 2011 16:40:10 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from gnats@FreeBSD.org) Received: from freefall.freebsd.org (freefall.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::28]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C933D8FC12 for ; Wed, 5 Jan 2011 16:40:10 +0000 (UTC) Received: from freefall.freebsd.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id p05GeAfi083717 for ; Wed, 5 Jan 2011 16:40:10 GMT (envelope-from gnats@freefall.freebsd.org) Received: (from gnats@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.14.4/8.14.4/Submit) id p05GeAHX083716; Wed, 5 Jan 2011 16:40:10 GMT (envelope-from gnats) Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2011 16:40:10 GMT Message-Id: <201101051640.p05GeAHX083716@freefall.freebsd.org> To: freebsd-xen@FreeBSD.org From: Greg Holmberg Cc: Subject: Re: kern/153620: Xen guest system clock drifts in AWS EC2 (FreeBSD 9.0-CURRENT i386 T1-micro) X-BeenThere: freebsd-xen@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: Greg Holmberg List-Id: Discussion of the freebsd port to xen - implementation and usage List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 05 Jan 2011 16:40:10 -0000 The following reply was made to PR kern/153620; it has been noted by GNATS. From: Greg Holmberg To: FreeBSD PR kern/153620 Cc: Subject: Re: kern/153620: Xen guest system clock drifts in AWS EC2 (FreeBSD 9.0-CURRENT i386 T1-micro) Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2011 17:32:53 +0100 The latest AMI (FreeBSD 9.0-CURRENT @ 2011-01-04) still drops time in chunks. It loses time in multiples of 2200 seconds while idle. The clock in the latest AMIs and older AMIs also drifts. Without some kind of external correction, it runs slightly slower, losing time at a rate of a little less than one second every 24 hours. In the 2011-01-01 and 2011-01-04 AMIs, a single ping from a remote host once every thirty minutes keeps an otherwise idle VM awake enough to prevent any time from being lost in chunks. In the latest AMIs and older AMIs, no amount of system activity or interrupts seems to prevent, aggravate, or change the rate of gradual clock drift. Regards, Greg Holmberg