VMWare ESX: static MAC address
Last week I planned to migrate some virtual machines running on a Windows host with VMWare Server 1.x version to VMWare ESX 3.5i host. One of the vm’s is running as license server and the key is registered by using the MAC of the network interface.
I had the prerequisite of keeping the MAC address of this VM. I first read this post I found with google. http://zealkabi.blogspot.com/2008/09/vmware-esx-server-3x-procedure-to-set.html
I first tried it manually but got the famous error 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 and ethernet0.Address = “01:0C:29:B0:27:E1″ with Notepad++.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 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 this 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″
VMWare ESX 3.5i U4
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Error
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00:0E:2E:0C:07:8F is not an allowed static Ethernet address.
Invalid MAC address specified.
Failed to configure ethernet1.
Radek
23 Apr 09 at 3:52 pm
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.
Ivan Versluis
23 Apr 09 at 5:24 pm
so i’ve esx 3.5 U4. this solution is not working.
guy
8 May 09 at 7:11 pm
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
Ivan Versluis
9 May 09 at 9:00 am
Thank you for this info.
I can confirm it works with ESX 3.5.0 Build 153875.
Philipp
29 May 09 at 10:41 am
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
chukaman
18 Jun 09 at 2:03 pm
I found this same error manifested when the filesystem got full, due to a vmware.log. Anyone know how to disable this logfile?
Tim Nordloh
9 Oct 09 at 9:45 pm
Perfect man, Thanks so MUCH.!!
Reza Toghraee
16 Feb 10 at 5:07 pm
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