Secure Time Seeding on Windows Servers may drift date and time into the future and affect data processing and presentation in SolarWinds Platform

You may experience timekeeping issues in Windows Server environments that affect applications like the SolarWinds Platform. These issues stem from the Secure Time Seeding (STS) feature in Windows Server—not from the SolarWinds application itself.

You may notice that data collection and data processing will be impacted, resulting in the following:

• Last DB sync will not show a recent timestamp
• Next Poll will show a time in the future
• Next Discovery will show a time in the future

There will be other side effects of this problem, like gaps in data, false alerts etc. These symptoms are not exhaustive.

You can validate if time drift occurred or not on SolarWinds or SQL Server by checking the relevant event logs(eventID=1)

Impact on Operating Systems

• Affected
  • Windows Server 2016
  • Windows Server 2019
  • Windows Server 2022
  • Intermediate releases between 2016–2022
• Not affected
  • Windows Server 2025 (STS is disabled by default)
  • Windows 10/11 (Not currently impacted, but monitor if used in time-sensitive roles.)

• STS uses SSL/TLS metadata to estimate system time and correct large time errors.
• In some deployments, STS has caused erroneous time jumps—ranging from days to years.
• These time shifts can disrupt time-sensitive applications like SolarWinds, especially in environments with domain controllers or virtual hosts.

To fix Next Poll, Next Discovery, Last DB sync related problems, and to reset the jobs, reset the Collector and Job engine SQLite DBs on all affected Polling Engines following the steps in the article below:

Repair a failing Job Engine and Collector Components

Recommended Preventive Actions per Microsoft

1. Disable STS on all Windows Server 2016–2022 machines, especially those running Active Directory Domain Services (ADDS), Virtual Machine hosts, SolarWinds or other time-sensitive applications. To disable STS, follow the steps below using the selected method, making sure to reboot the system after applying the change.
   • Using Windows Registry
     

     reg.exe add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Config" /v "UtilizeSslTimeData" /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

   • Using Group Policy (GPO)
     Path: Computer Configuration > Policy > Administrative Templates > System > Windows Time Service
     Group Policy: Global Configuration Settings
     Setting: UtilizeSslTimeData
     Values: 0 (disabled), 1 (enabled)
2.  Monitor time accuracy
   • Use NTP servers (e.g., time.windows.com)
   • Implement time monitoring tools or alerts for time drift

Additional notes

• STS is disabled by default in Windows Server 2025 due to customer feedback.
• If STS must remain enabled, ensure robust time monitoring is in place.

For more information, please refer to: Secure Time Seeding Recommendations for Windows Server - Windows Server