VMWare: how to set static MAC address ESX?

Posted by Ivan

/ April 21, 2009 / 20 Comments

Last week I planned to migrate some virtual machines running on a VMWare Server 1.x Windows host to aVMWare ESX 3.5i host.

One of the vm’s is running as license server and the registration key was registered by using the MAC of the network interface. I had to keep the MAC address of this VM. I first read this post.

I tried to manually set the MAC address from VMWare client but go the following message:

“The MAC address entered is not in the valid range. Valid values are between xx:xx:xx:xx:xx”

Then I removed the vm from ESX inventory; download the vmx file and changed the ethernet0.addressType to static. I used Notepad+ to change ethernet0.Address = “01:0C:29:B0:27:E1” value. I deleted original file from the Datastore and upload the vmx file back. I started the vm again and got the message below:

Please specify a static Ethernet address for ethernet0. Failed to configure ethernet0

Without an additional setting in the vmx config file you won’t be able to assign a static MAC address in the range your require. To disable mac address checking before boot add the following line in the vmx file.

ethernetX.checkMACAddress = “false”

Thanks to Jason Nash I fixed my problem. http://jasonnash.wordpress.com/2008/08/30/disabling-mac-address-checking-in-vmware/

My working config changes:

ethernet0.checkMACAddress = “false”
ethernet0.addressType = “static”
ethernet0.Address = “00:0C:29:B0:27:E1”

April 23, 2009
Radek

VMWare ESX 3.5i U4
🙁

—————————
Error
—————————
00:0E:2E:0C:07:8F is not an allowed static Ethernet address.
Invalid MAC address specified.
Failed to configure ethernet1.
April 23, 2009
Ivan Versluis

ethernet0.present = “true”
ethernet0.networkName = “vlan1”
ethernet0.checkMACAddress = “false”
ethernet0.addressType = “static”
ethernet0.Address = “00:0C:29:B0:27:E1”

This is the config I used for the NIC interface. Please check on your end.
May 8, 2009
guy

so i’ve esx 3.5 U4. this solution is not working.
May 9, 2009
Ivan Versluis

Well I got this solution working when migrating the VMWare Server virtual machine to ESX i.

Please make sure that you:

Remove virtual machine from inventory

Download the vmx file from datastore to local drive
Delete vmx file from datastore

Edit the vmx file with Notepad++ with configuration settings above
Upload the new vmx file to datastore

Register the vmx file with ESX server
May 29, 2009
Philipp

Thank you for this info.
I can confirm it works with ESX 3.5.0 Build 153875.
June 18, 2009
chukaman

Awesome this rocks. Working happily on ESX 3.5.0 Build 153875 for me as well. I barely obeyed your instructions, but what I needed was:

ethernet0.checkMACAddress = “false”

Thanks 🙂
October 9, 2009
Tim Nordloh

I found this same error manifested when the filesystem got full, due to a vmware.log. Anyone know how to disable this logfile?
February 16, 2010
Reza Toghraee

Perfect man, Thanks so MUCH.!!
March 8, 2011
Kris

is anyone tried to change the MAC from “00:50:56:00:00:00-00:50:56:3F:FF:FF” range as static for VMXnet 3 type NIC?
March 23, 2011
mea_john

Solution is working on ESX 4.1u1
November 11, 2011
Nguyen Viet Anh

place file vmx in VMware ESXi 4.1
February 25, 2012
Alex

Tried all options listed here but could not set static mac address on ESX 3.5.0 U 110268.
September 24, 2012
fred

Tried this on a recently upgraded ESX 5.1 host, but can’t seem to get it to work?! Removed the vm from inventory, deleted the wmx file, uploaded and added to inventory. I have got the following settings in my wmx file:

ethernet0.present = “true”
ethernet0.virtualDev = “e1000”
ethernet0.wakeOnPcktRcv = “false”
ethernet0.checkMACAddress = “false”
ethernet0.networkName = “VM Network”
ethernet0.addressType = “static”
ethernet0.address = “00:0c:29:d3:aa:e3”
September 24, 2012
Ivan Versluis

Hi Fred,

I have not tried this myself on a ESX 5 server.

I am not able to verify suggested configuration right now. If you do find a solution somewhere else please let me know.

Thanks.
September 24, 2012
fred

Upon further reading of the release notes (https://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esx-vcenter-server-51-release-notes.html#networkingissues) I found something that seem to apply here – or have I got it all backwards?!

“… Prefix- and range-based MAC address allocation is supported only in vCenter Server 5.1 and ESXi 5.1. If you add pre-5.1 hosts to vCenter Server 5.1, and use anything other than VMware OUI prefix- or range-based MAC address allocation, virtual machines assigned MAC addresses that are not VMware OUI prefixed fail to power on their pre-5.1 hosts. ”

I might have to rethink my approach – revert back to esx 5.0 and try to correct the misbehaving vm (it is an Ubuntu with misconfigured Samba that won’t boot unless the expected MAC address is used)?
September 26, 2012
fred

So, I reverted back to 5.0 and was able to boot the vm. Followed the instruction in this post http://www.serenux.com/2009/11/howto-fix-a-missing-eth0-adapter-after-moving-ubuntu-server-from-one-box-to-another/ to get the VM to accept a vmware approved MAC. The reason I couldn’t do this (without reverting to 5.0) was that the vm had a Samba automount on boot that failed and caused the machine to hang 🙁 Seems like I’m back on track! Thanks!
February 8, 2017
Ranvir (SMTP Server)

Thanks its working like charm on my smtp server

ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000"
ethernet0.networkName = "VM Network"
ethernet0.present = "TRUE"
ethernet0.checkMACAddress = "FALSE"
ethernet0.addressType = "static"
ethernet0.address = "00:0c:29:d3:aa:e3"

Remove all the ethernet0 or ethernet1 instances and add the above code at the end of .vmx file and it works great even into esxi 6 + vspher clinet 6.

Thanks and hoping best of luck always.
August 14, 2020
BC

Just used Ranvir's lines in Vsphere 7.0 current release – worked as desired.

Was a Shoretel Server that I had to move to a new host as old one was dying.
spun up and they tie license to MAC – client doesn't pay for maintenance so doubt they'd help – rekey – being it is ~5 years beyond
(I recoomend moving away to something simple like FreePBX or other well supported cost effective platform!)