The first byte of the MAC address cannot bit odd ?

[atakacs]

Hello

I am getting the above error message when trying to enter a specific MAC address starting with 01:18 to be used in a virtual adapter.

Any reason for that restriction ? Any way around it (manually editing the vmx does not work...) ?

Thanks

[WoodyZ]

Have a look at: Setting a MAC address for a virtual machine in VMware Fusion

[atakacs]

Sorry I don't see any reference to my problem in said article (but I might be missing something...).

[WoodyZ]

From the previously linked KB Article: "Note: The authorized Mac address can be picked up in this range: 00:50:00:00:01 to 00:50:56:3F:FF:FF"

[WoodyZ]

Also if you want to assign a MAC Address outside of the normal range then the first byte cannot be an odd number just as the messages states, "Invalid MAC address. The first byte of the address cannot be odd."

[atakacs]

And why is there such a limitation (which was my initial question) ??

Is there a technical issue or just some commercial decision ?

Also the error message could be reworked to specify that the entered IP is not within permissible range instead of mentioning something about parity...

[WoodyZ]

And why is there such a limitation (which was my initial question) ??

Is there a technical issue or just some commercial decision ?

See my addition post below. (Re: The first byte of the MAC address cannot bit odd ?)

Also the error message could be reworked to specify that the entered IP is not within permissible range instead of mentioning something about parity...

It is not an "IP" it's a MAC Address and the error message is fine.  What do you not understand when it says "The first byte of the address cannot be odd"?  A MAC Address is after all a hexadecimal value so how else do you want to describe that the first byte cannot be odd?

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

As Woody already mentioned, the VMware MAC address range is restricted. This is not a marketing issue, but based on officially registered MAC address ranges (see http://standards.ieee.org/develop/regauth/oui/oui.txt) The alternative to officially registered MAC addresses - that's what e.g. XenServer uses - is to use "locally administered" MAC addresses (bit 2 of the most significant octet set to 1) This as well as the reason for the error with an odd first octet in MAC addresses (unicast vs. multicast) is explained in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_address

André

[atakacs]

Thanks - I have learned something !