The virtual NIC connects to a standard or distributed port group.
VSphere assigns a MAC address automatically.
VMware has this KB article on how to set a static MAC address for a virtual machine, but I recommend you use this sparingly, and avoid it if possible. VMware virtual machines can use the default range of MAC addresses, or a user specified address. For vSphere environments, if an address outside of this boundary needs to be used, you'll be required to edit the machine's. VMware vSphere allows you to specify it within the vSphere Client for user-specified addresses in the range of 00-0C-29-xx-xx-xx. Sun VirtualBox has a field that you can simply type in a desired MAC address. Be sure to see this scorecard of virtual machine MAC address identifiers.ĭepending on the hypervisor, the MAC address can be specified a number of different ways. Each hypervisor and NIC brand has a designated MAC unique identifier. 00-0C-29 is the MAC unique identifier for VMware ESX virtualization, and D3-88-7C is the specific VM. Take, for example, the following MAC address: 00-0C-29-D3-88-7C. The last three parts of two hexadecimal numbering is the unique instance of that MAC address from the NIC brand. Ironically, these are the unique identifiers of the network interface controller (NIC) manufacturer and are replicated all the time. The first three are pairs of hexadecimal numbering that are referred to as a MAC unique identifier. Other situations can arise due to network address control (NAC) systems in use on a network or the Internet, which, again, may stem from a P2V conversion.īefore I explain how to change a MAC address, it is worth outlining a summary view of the MAC address nomenclature.
Reasons for requiring a MAC address on a virtual machine to be user-specified usually stem from a P2V conversion, where an installed piece of software requires a MAC address as a licensing mechanism. This is an issue that comes up regardless of virtualization platform and there is no clear way to address fixed MAC addresses other than specifying one in a virtual machine. Reading through my past blogs, I saw a nice post by Vladan Seget on setting a virtual machine's MAC address within vSphere.