> [...] I can only use it on the low setting (1 out of 3) because the machine (VM) is sometimes powered off and its time gets de-synced. The server is running n

> [...] I can only use it on the low setting (1 out of 3) because the machine (VM) is sometimes powered off and its time gets de-synced. The server is running ntpd but on this security level you're not allowed to change time by more than a second. Have you tried configuring your NTP daemon so it would only adjust time in sub-second increments?