[Users] gettimeofday() errors on an openvz-based VPS

[Bloke]

Hello,

I have an openvz-based VPS running Centos 5.2.

Increasingly, the Dovecot IMAP service is returning 'Time moved backwards' errors, which on further research appear to be due to incorrect results returned by the system when the gettimeofday() function is called.

It is discussed on the dovecot wiki http://www.dovecot.org/list/dovecot/2008-June/031548.html

and on the Kernel mailing list http://lkml.org/lkml/2007/8/23/96

which suggest that it may be due to a 'misconfigured virtual server'.

I have raised the issue with my VPS provider, who have reported that 'The jury is out' as to whether this is likely to be a Dovecot, or OpenVZ configuration problem.

I would be very grateful for any advice as to how I should best test which is the more likely case, and how I should best describe the problem to my VPS provider.

Thank you,

Patrick Vale