May 04, 2017 VMware ESX Server virtual machines do not support arbitrary MAC addresses, hence the above format must be used. As long as you choose a hex value that is unique among your hard-coded addresses, conflicts between the automatically assigned MAC addresses and the manually assigned ones should never occur.
VMware Workstation 9, VMware ESXi 5.1, Windows 7 x64 VMNo vCenter access, but I could deploy a vCVA if need be.
I am able to move the VM from Workstation to ESXi just fine. Using the VM->Manage->Upload option, didn't try scp or similar yet.
My challenge is that I need to preserve the UUID, MAC address, and any other information that is unique to the source VM.
Once I upload the VM to ESXi a customization is automatically happening assigning a new MAC address, UUID, etc., how can I avoid that from happening?
I need the VM on ESXi to be exactly the way it was on Workstation. I know that I can manually set the MAC on ESXi, but that doesn't prevent whatever other customizations are happening.
UPDATE:joeqwerty's comment about the UUID was good, however I was unable to change the MAC address to what it needed to be. On Workstation it's 00:0C:29:63:3E:BA, when I try to set a manual address in ESXi it suggests the first 6 to be 00:50:56: when I enter the Workstation address instead I receive the following error message:
Failed to start the virtual machine.Module DevicePowerOn power on failed.Could not set up 'macAddress' for ethernet0.Invalid MAC address specified. 00:0C:29:63:3E:BA is not an allowed static Ethernet address.It conflicts with VMware reserved MACs.
This is an issue with an unpatched 5.1 install and has been fixed in 5.1 U2, and 5.5, see http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2035707
UPDATE 2:Even though the above link states that this issue has been resolved in 5.5 it has not actually been resolved and the MAC address restriction still shows up until one manually edits the vmx file to disable the MAC address check as explained in the above link.
1 Answer
You can manually assign a MAC address (as you've stated) and you can manually specify the UUID by editing the .vmx file of the VM.
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Vmware Esxi Manual Mac Address 1
I think we are all familiar with the manual MAC address issue - some software depends on the MAC for licensing, and in VMware you need to stick to a certain range of Ethernet addresses if you want to be able to manually put in your own MAC address.
Somehow I think that should have been written in big, bold letters before I started virtualizing a couple of years ago. I'm pretty sure it wasn't mentioned in the class, either. I have several apps that generate their license based on a server's MAC. And yes, now I have to change virtual NICs on several VMs from either Flexible or E1000 to VMXNET2.
Currently running vSphere 4.1, ESX build 320092 across the board.
Since I didn't plan ahead far enough to manually put in those MAC addresses, now I have no choice but to find some way to keep them until the vendors can regen the licensences.
So, here's the procedure I'm using to keep the MAC address:
1) Write down the old MAC
Vmware Esxi Manual Mac Address 10
2) Replace Flexible NIC with VMXNET2
3) Unregister the VM
4) Edit the .vmx file and replace the automatically assigned MAC address with the old MAC address
- this is how I get around the GUI
5) Re-register the VM with the host
6) Boot up
Os X Esxi
So far it has worked for me just fine on two test servers. The question is: Will this cause any problems down the road?
Vmware Esxi Manual Mac Address 2016
I am currently running a 'vanilla' network setup - no distributed vSwitches. However I do plan on putting that in place later this year, and that's where I'm not sure it my little procedure will come up to surprise me at that point.