A Network Time Protocol (NTP) server provides a precise time source (radio clock or atomic clock) to synchronize the system clocks of all devices within the infrastructure. NTP is transported over User Datagram Protocol (UDP/IP) and all NTP communications use Universal Time Coordinated (UTC) time. An NTP server receives its time from an upstream reference time source, such as a radio clock or atomic clock. The NTP server then distributes this time across the network.

A consistent NTP configuration is highly recommended because it synchronizes all the clocks in each component in the infrastructure and eases the tasks of reconciling logs, debugging, and information tracing. NTP must be configured on each host and share the same time source as the vCenter Server, VMware Platform Services Controller™, and all other management and production components.