6.5.1

Table Of Contents
By default, VMware uses the Organizationally Unique Identifier (OUI) 00:50:56 for manually generated
addresses, but all unique manually generated addresses are supported.
Note Make sure 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. The physical servers do not belong to the vCenter Server
inventory, and vCenter Server is not able to check for address collision.
VMware OUI in Static MAC Addresses
By default, static MAC addresses have the VMware Organizationally Unique Identifier (OUI) as the prefix.
However, the range of free address provided by the VMware OUI is restricted.
If you decide to use the VMware OUI, part of the range is reserved for use by vCenter Server, host
physical NICs, virtual NICs, and for future use.
You can set a static MAC address that contains the VMware OUI prefix in compliance with the following
format:
00:50:56:XX:YY:ZZ
where XX is a valid hexadecimal number between 00 and 3F, and YY and ZZ are valid hexadecimal
numbers between 00 and FF. To avoid conflict with MAC addresses that are generated by vCenter Server
or are assigned to VMkernel adapters for infrastructure traffic, the value for XX must not be greater than
3F.
The maximum value for a manually generated MAC address is as follows.
00:50:56:3F:FF:FF
To avoid conflicts between the generated MAC addresses and the manually assigned ones, select a
unique value for XX:YY:ZZ from your hard-coded addresses.
Assign a Static MAC Address by Using 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.
Procedure
1 Locate the virtual machine in the vSphere Web Client.
a Select a data center, folder, cluster, resource pool, or host and click the VMs tab.
b Click Virtual Machines and double-click the virtual machine from the list.
2 Power off the virtual machine.
3 On the Configure tab of the virtual machine, expand Settings and select VM Hardware.
4 Click Edit and select the Virtual Hardware tab in the dialog box displaying the settings.
vSphere Networking
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