Best practices for assigning static MAC address to a Virtual machine vNIC

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides best practice information for assigning static MAC address to a Virtual machine vNIC and adding a new vNIC to the Virtual Machine.

Environment

• VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x
• VMware vCenter Server 8.x

Resolution

• Before assigning a static MAC address, query the VPX_NIC table in the vCenter postgres database (select * from vpx_nic) to verify if the address is unique. Treat uppercase and lowercase values as identical when checking for duplicates.
• Enter the new static MAC address using only lowercase letters. vCenter Server duplicate detection may fail if uppercase letters are used.
• In instances of MAC address duplication, the virtual machine’s network adapter address must be modified manually.
• Please refer to vSphere Networking for additional details.
• When using vNICs in the environment, please refer to Best practices for assigning static MAC address to a Virtual machine vNIC