The value for XX cannot be greater than 3F to avoid conflict with MAC addresses that are generated by the VMware Workstation and VMware Server products. The maximum value for a manually generated MAC address is shown in the sample. However, the range of free address provided by the VMware OUI is restrictions. Assign a Static MAC Address with the vSphere Web Client You can assign static MAC addresses to the virtual NIC of a powered off virtual machine by using the vSphere Web Client. Assign a Static MAC Address in the Virtual Machine Configuration File.

Maintaining and Changing the MAC Address of a Virtual Machine

When a virtual machine is powered on, VMware Workstation automatically assigns each of its virtual network adapters an Ethernet MAC address. MAC stands for media access control. A MAC address is the unique address assigned to each Ethernet network device.

The software guarantees that virtual machines are assigned unique MAC addresses within a given host system. In most cases, the virtual machine is assigned the same MAC address every time it is powered on, so long as the virtual machine is not moved (the path and filename for the virtual machine's configuration file must remain the same) and no changes are made to certain settings in the configuration file.

In addition, VMware Workstation does its best, but cannot guarantee, to automatically assign unique MAC addresses for virtual machines running on multiple host systems.

Avoiding MAC Changes

To avoid changes in the MAC address automatically assigned to a virtual machine, you must not move the virtual machine's configuration file. Moving it to a different host computer or even moving it to a different location on the same host computer changes the MAC address.

You also need to be sure not to change certain settings in the virtual machine's configuration files. If you never edit the configuration file by hand and do not remove the virtual Ethernet adapter, these settings remain untouched. If you do edit the configuration file by hand, be sure not to remove or change the following options:

ethernet[n].generatedAddress
ethernet[n].addressType
ethernet[n].generatedAddressOffset
uuid.location
uuid.bios
ethernet[n].present

In these options, [n] is the number of the virtual Ethernet adapter, for example ethernet0.

Note: To preserve a virtual Ethernet adapter's MAC address, you also must be careful not to remove the adapter. If you remove the adapter, then recreate it, the adapter may receive a different MAC address.

Manually Assigning a MAC Address

Vmware Download For Mac

If you want to guarantee that the same MAC address is assigned to a given virtual machine every time, even if the virtual machine is moved, or if you want to guarantee a unique MAC address for each virtual machine within a networked environment, you can assign the address manually instead of allowing VMware Workstation to assign it automatically.

To assign the same, unique MAC address to any virtual machine manually, use a text editor to remove three lines from the configuration file and add one line. The configuration file has a.vmx extension at the end of the filename. On a Linux host, a virtual machine created with an earlier VMware product may have a configuration file with a .cfg extension.

Remove the three lines that begin with the following from the configuration file:

ethernet[n].generatedAddress
ethernet[n].addressType
ethernet[n].generatedAddressOffset

Vmware Manual Mac Address Not Valid Range

In these options, [n] is the number of the virtual Ethernet adapter — for example ethernet0.

Add the following line to the configuration file:

ethernet[n].address = 00:50:56:XX:YY:ZZ

In this line, XX must be a valid hexadecimal number between 00h and 3Fh, and YY and ZZ must be valid hexadecimal numbers between 00h and FFh. Because VMware Workstation virtual machines do not support arbitrary MAC addresses, you must use the above format.

So long as you choose a value for XX:YY:ZZ that is unique among your hard-coded addresses (where XX is a valid hexadecimal number between 00h and 3Fh, and YY and ZZ are valid hexadecimal numbers between 00h and FFh), conflicts between the automatically assigned MAC addresses and the manually assigned addresses should never occur.

In most network deployments, generated MAC addresses are appropriate. However, you might need to set a static MAC address for a virtual network adapter.

The following examples show when you might set a static MAC address.

Virtual network adapters on different physical hosts share the same subnet and are assigned the same MAC address, causing a conflict.

By default, VMware uses the Organizationally Unique Identifier (OUI) 00:50:56 for manually generated addresses, but all unique manually generated addresses are supported.

If you choose to use the VMware OUI, part of the range has been partitioned for use by vCenter Server , host physical NICs, virtual NICs, and future use.

You can set a static MAC address using the VMware OUI prefix by adding the following line to a virtual machine‘s configuration file:

In the example, <number> refers to the number of the Ethernet adapter, XX is a valid hexadecimal number between 00 and 3F, and YY and ZZ are valid hexadecimal numbers between 00 and FF. The value for XX cannot be greater than 3F to avoid conflict with MAC addresses that are generated by the VMware Workstation and VMware Server products. The maximum value for a manually generated MAC address is shown in the sample.

You must also set the address type in a virtual machine’s configuration file.

Because ESXi virtual machines do not support arbitrary MAC addresses, you must use the example format. Choose a unique value for XX:YY:ZZ among your hard-coded addresses to avoid conflicts between the automatically assigned MAC addresses and the manually assigned ones.

Vmware Mac Address Manual Free

It is your responsibility to to ensure that no other non-VMware devices use addresses assigned to VMware components. For example, you might have physical servers in the same subnet, which use 11:11:11:11:11:11, 22:22:22:22:22:22 as static MAC addresses. Since the physical servers do not belong to the vCenter Server inventory, vCenter Server is not able to check for address collision.