MAC Addresses and DHCP for a VM running on an ESXi 6 host

[Nascent1]

I recently converted a windows 2008r2 server from a physical box to a virtual machine using the VMware vCenter Converter. The conversion seems to a have worked quite well, as it is now running without issue on one of my ESXi hosts (ESXi 6). The server that was converter is on VM version 10.

The issue that i am seeing lately is that my DHCP server is giving out multiple leases to the newly converted server hostname. I have disabled all NICs except for the one that has a statically assigned IP address and im still getting a good 10 different leases for this server. I think the most important bit of information i can provide is the actual MAC address that the DHCP server is leasing to have WAY more values then what a MAC address should have.

List of a few MAC addresses that i have listed on my DHCP server:
52:41:53:20:00:50:56:95:6F:F0:00:00:00:00:00:00

52:41:53:20:00:50:56:95:6F:F0:00:00:08:00:00:00

52:41:53:20:00:50:56:95:6F:F0:00:00:09:00:00:00

MAC address of the NIC attached to this VM:

00:50:56:95:6f:f0 (so the one that was generated by VMware when the VM was created)

It clearly has something to do with traffic leaving this NIC, as the MAC address in inside the 'wrong' MACs, but i dont know what or why these are generating. Has anyone seen anything like this before?

[bluefirestorm · Accepted solution]

If I am not mistaken, there is a vCenter Converter Agent service installed as part of the P2V process.

Did you uninstall all the vCenter Converter related software after the P2V?

While this is not likely to be the source of the DHCP leases, it is also a good idea to remove any ghost devices; in some cases there could be ghost NICs. The KB below is an example how a ghost NIC in a VM can cause problems. It also outlines steps to remove ghost devices from a VM that had undergone P2V.

Networking Error: IP address already assigned to another adapter (1179) | VMware KB

[Nascent1]

Actually i think you hit the nail straight on the head. The knowledge base article you linked about ghost NICs was the cause. Once i found and removed those ghost NICs from the server, i didnt see another DHCP request. Thank you for your help.