Not that I think it effects your point, but just off the top of my head: System clock will take a larger step than usual. It won't go backwards. Assumes that

Not that I think it effects your point, but just off the top of my head: System clock will take a larger step than usual. It won't go backwards. Assumes that checkpoint and restore to a previous time won't happen. NTP only drifts the clock (under normal operation). Unless it's a system like this. Note that this was pulled at about 1pm EST. Waiting for clock tick... ...got clock tick Time read from Hardware Clock: 2016/02/09 22:36:50 Hw clock time : 2016/02/09 22:36:50 = 1455057410 seconds since 1969 Tue 09 Feb 2016 02:36:50 PM PST -1.038948 seconds Under normal operation it will only move forward 'Under normal operation' is not really a high bar for distributed systems. After all, the network is reliable 'under normal operation' too.