topic Re: Non VMware MAC address? in ESXi Discussions

Non VMware MAC address?

Rhidian — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:00:16 GMT

Hi,

I have seen numerous posts on this topic but would like a definitive answer, is it possible in ESXi 4.1 to set a non VMware MAC address. I have tried

ethernet0.checkMACAddress = "FALSE" but this doesn't seem to do anything.

Regards,

Re: Non VMware MAC address?

harrygunter — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:13:37 GMT

Hi,

Have gone through this article?

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=219

I don't think you can use a non vmware mac address in ESX, but workstation you can.

VMware ESX Server virtual machines do not support arbitrary MAC addresses, hence the above format must be used. As long as you choose a hex value that is unique among your hard-coded addresses, conflicts between the automatically assigned MAC addresses and the manually assigned ones should never occur.

Re: Non VMware MAC address?

Rhidian — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 09:43:25 GMT

I have managed to manipulate the MAC address by changing the type of network card to an E1000 and changing the values in the network configuration setting of the OS additionally I accepted forged transit and MAC changes I'm now able to communicate inside the virtual infrastructure but I'm still unable to ping my default gateway, I'm guessing that I need to do some config changes on my physical switches to allow this.

Re: Non VMware MAC address?

Samcer — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 02:04:17 GMT

I discovered you can assign a NON VMware MAC in vSphere 5, by using Manual Addresses

Re: Non VMware MAC address?

aravinds3107 — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 04:31:44 GMT

When you say NON VMware MAC Address -- Do you mean assigning a Physical MAC address?

Re: Non VMware MAC address?

Samcer — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 00:50:37 GMT

yes, I wrote a post in my blog: http://communities.vmware.com/blogs/vm-support/2012/03/27/vsphere-5-e-mac-address-arbitrari

It is in Italian but it is very clear just see images.

Let me know if you have done deeper test.

Many thanks

Sam