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PduPreez
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

VMotion MAC adress identical on multiple hosts.

I created a custom ESXi 4.1 USB Boot image. Basically this image contained base config and a specific driver for the IBM Blades Virtual connect drivers.

Once this image was prepped I cloned it to the rest of the 50 odd host's USB sticks.

The problem I have is not with the management VMkernal network, this network MAC changes to the same MAC as the Physical NICs, which is 100%.

The Problem I do have is when I create a second VMkernal network for VMotion. Now as far as I understand this new VMkernal will generate a MAC address to use.

I noticed that the VMotion MAC address on all hosts are the same, ending with "9e:a8". This MAC adress gets allocated no matter where I create the VMotion interface, same vSwitch as Management or new vSwitch with separate pNICs. I also noticed that even when adding a 3rd VMkernal interface, those mac addresses are also the same on all hosts ending in "c1:43". This obviously has a significant impact on my VMotion capabilities.

VMotion is set up on a separate dedicated vSwitch with 2 physical NICs

My Question is:

How can I regenerate new MAC addresses for the 2nd VMkernal(VMotion)

OR

How can I force the second VMkernal(VMotion) to use one of the physical NICs MAC address.

Help will be Appreciated

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4 Replies
DSTAVERT
Immortal
Immortal

I would try a "reset configuration" on one of your hosts. to see if that fixes things. You can reset via the yellow console screen or ssh. /sbin/firmwareConfig.sh --reset. Not

-- David -- VMware Communities Moderator
FranckRookie
Leadership
Leadership

Hi Pieter,

(Repost from the other thread)

David should be right on the fact that a Reset should do the job.

You should also be able to change VMKernel MAC address by either using the command line "vimsh hostsvc/net/vnic_set --vnic-mac=00:50:56:xx:xx:xx vmkX" or editing directly esx.conf .

I don't know how this MAC address is generated but I suppose it uses a unique ID you have inside your ESX. As you cloned them, they all have this same ID and the algorithm always generates the same addresses. The point is to find this ID and change it so every USB stick is unique. Maybe one of our Gurus could help on that point?

Good luck!

Regards

Franck

PduPreez
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

I would try a "reset configuration" on one of your hosts

This does work and generates a new unique MAC for VMotion, but it resets all the config, including the Network driver I manualy installed. So after reset i need to reboot, install driver then reboot, the configure ip and host name.

So it kinda defeats the purpose of imaging the USB sticks, with the installed driver, to save time in the 1st place Smiley Sad

To Franck

That is also a valid option but I prefer staying away from manual MAC assignments Smiley Wink

So basically I'm doing a reset on all the hosts at the moment, but for future, how would you do a USB stick ESXi Install on 30+ Blades that needs a custom driver installed afterwords

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PduPreez
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Install 1 at a time

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