Time changes randomly in Dovecot using CentOS 5.5

[Pandeyji]

Hello friends, I am coming up here with a very strange error on my server. I am having Dovecot in CentOS 5.5 on my server it is working perfectly but I am having issue in time, time of the server is updating automatically after every 5 to 10 seconds. Whenever I am using “watch date” command it show me time but it is updating automatically, below is the watch time command’s result:
[

root ~]# date
Fri May 6 11:51:21 GMT 2011
[root ~]# date
Fri May 6 11:51:31 GMT 2011
[root ~]# date
Fri May 6 11:51:36 GMT 2011
[root ~]# date
Fri May 6 11:51:46 GMT 2011
[root ~]# date
Fri May 6 11:51:51 GMT 2011
[root ~]# date
Fri May 6 11:51:56 GMT 2011

Can anyone help me with this? Please reply to post.

[Dolsy_bendal]

Hello, I have gone through to your problem, according to me, you should check in time setting for the below error:

dovecot: pop3: Fatal: Time just moved backwards by 5 seconds.

If you are getting this kind of thing then you must be running ntpdate periodically, which can be reason for above case. Check for it that ntpdate is running or not, if it is running then stop running it and reboot server, after that check that still you are getting same error or not. All the Best

[Luis234]

Hey I have seen your problem, and I am completely agreed with the above step. First try to use it and if you still find that your problem is not yet solved then I must say that you must be using some kind of virtual server, which is not configured in right sense. You must check for the virtual server and its configuration accordingly. Doing change or stopping the virtual server may cause to solve your problem. All the best and do reply if you solve your problem.

[Elijah]

Hello, I was having the same problem in my server also. I am giving you the solution, which I followed to solve my problem. Firstly I wanted to tell you that CentOS does not set time back by itself. For that reason I can tell you is just check you running services using “chkconfig” command, which will provide you the list of current running services on the server. in addition also check for the crontab entries on the server. This will be enough for you to solve your problem. Thank you

[Aleksandra]

Hello everyone, the above solution is perfectly true. I have seen the similar problem about the virtual machine, but as per my knowledge virtual machines do not have time synchronization with the host properly set up. Below command will help you to know more about the system and virtual machine:

cat - > getinfo.sh  # Note: Ctrl-D is EOF
chmod +x getinfo.sh
./getinfo.sh

If you find that your problem is solve then reply to the post. Thanks you.

[kraal]

Hello, I have gone through to the same error. And according to me the cronetab entries should be below:

[root@cloud1 ~]# chkconfig --list
MailScanner     0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
NetworkManager  0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
anacron         0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
apf             0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
atd             0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
auditd          0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
avahi-daemon    0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
avahi-dnsconfd  0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
clamd-virtualmin        0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
conman          0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
courier-authlib 0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
courier-imap    0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
cpuspeed        0:off   1:on    2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
crond           0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
dc_client       0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
dc_server       0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
dnsmasq         0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
dovecot         0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
dund            0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
httpd           0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
hyperic-hq-server       0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
iptables        0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
irda            0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
irqbalance      0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
lm_sensors      0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
lookup-domain   0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:off   5:on    6:off
mailman         0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
mcstrans        0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
mdmpd           0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
microcode_ctl   0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
multipathd      0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
mysqld          0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
named           0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
netconsole      0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
netplugd        0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
network         0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
nfs             0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
nscd            0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
ntpd            0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
oddjobd         0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
openfire        0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
pand            0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
postfix         0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
postgresql      0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
postgrey        0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
proftpd         0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
psacct          0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
pure-ftpd       0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
rawdevices      0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
rdisc           0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
readahead_early 0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
readahead_later 0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:on    6:off

if your entries will be above, then you will not find any error in time changing. All the Best.

[Pandeyji]

Hey thanks to you all, I have solved my problem, the actuall problem was below

# chkconfig --list
NetworkManager 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off

Due to this I was getting the error. I have gone through to all your solutions and point, using all I came to know about this error and I solved it. thanks a lot again.