Automation

Guys, I have a use case where I would like assign static MAC addresses to systems. Looking at this is it indicating that MAC addresses are assigned from the DataCentre level ? Ideally I'd like to create a pool of MACS for a cluster to avoid potential overlap.

Generally, MAC address assigning is handled via two methods:

1. ESXi host that generates them with prefix scheme of 00:0c:29

2. vCenter Server that generates with prefix scheme of 00:50:56 to prevent MAC Address duplication problem (that you have mentioned in your question)

So when you let the vCenter handle this issue, there is no need to worry about it ...

But I wish to script creation of VMS with static MACs so i can create DHCP reservations for them. Can I request a MAC from vCentre? I guess I could allow vCentre assign the MAC then grab it from the VM and assign it back to it as static,.

After you do a New-VM, the vNIC will get a MAC from vCenter.

Once the VM is created, and before powering it on, you can retrieve the assigned MAC with something like this.
Then create your DHCP reservation.

When the VM is powered on, it will get the assigned IP from DHCP

$mac = Get-NetworkAdapter -VM $vm | Select -ExpandProperty MacAddress

Regardless of assigning methods of MAC address to VMs, you need to execute second part manually: Adding the leased IP address to the reservation list!

Moderator: Moved to PowerCLI