vSphere MAC address types

Products

• VMware Aria Suite

Issue/Introduction

The purpose of this article is to provide information about the various MAC address types available in vSphere.

Resolution

Q: What are the valid values of address type?

• Manual: Statically assigned MAC address (user will assign a MAC address manually)
• Assigned: MAC address assigned by vCenter
• Generated: Automatically generated MAC address (MAC address will automatically generated by ESXi)

Q: What is the difference between Assigned and Generated ? What type should I use while restoring a VM to ESXi directly and to vCenter Server?

Assigned is generated by vCenter Server, Generated is generated by ESXi. You should use Assigned for vCenter Server and Generated for ESXi.

Q: When you create a virtual Machine using webclient, you see only 2 options for MAC type, Manual and Automatic. Is Automatic relevant to Assigned address type  or Generated address type ?

• If you connected webclient using vCenter IP, it is relevant to assigned.
• If you connected to UI client using ESXi server, it is relevant to generated.

For more information, see vSphere Web Services API.