Static Assigned MAC Not Working

[vmhugo]

Hello,

We have VMware ESXi, 6.5.0, 13932383.

We are trying to set a static MAC on a VMXNET3 adapter. (we have tried E1000, same issue.)

When using C1:73:xx:xx:xx:xx the adapter in Windows comes up with Error 10, Device can't start. The same issue appears in Linux when the adapter can't start.

If we use 00:73:xx:xx:xx:xx it's fine. Other random MAC's work fine as well, it's just a MAC starting with C1 that it doesn't like.

This is being setup so we can test an application issue where by the software is MAC licensed.

Reading VMware Doco, custom MAC's outside the VMware prefix are allowed, but there is no mention of blacklisted ranges.

Any ideas.

[berndweyand]

just to clarify: setting the mac in the machine configuration works ? only after startup the guest-os gives you error messages ?

[T180985]

Are you trying to add a new NIC with your custom MAC or are you trying to edit the MAC of an existing NIC?

[a_p_]

Just a guess, because I never tried this myself.

Is it by purpose that you use a multicast MAC address (which is rather unusual)? Unicast vs. multicast is defined by the least significant bit of the first octet.

For details see e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_address​

André

[berndweyand]

yes he is using a multicast address. the first octet must be even for a unicast address. we're using only unicast custom addresses and it works fine. but never tried multicast