Manually Assign a MAC Address to a Virtual Machine

You can manually assign a MAC address to a virtual machine.

You might want to assign a MAC address to guarantee that the same address is assigned to a virtual machine every time it powers on, even it is moved, or to be sure that a unique MAC address is provided for each virtual machine in a networked environment.

Procedure

1. Use a text editor to remove the following options from the virtual machine configuration (.vmx) file.

   ethernet[n].generatedAddress
   ethernet[n].addressType
   ethernet[n].generatedAddressOffset

   In these options, [n] is the number of the virtual network adapter.

2. Add the ethernet[n].address option to the .vmx file above the UUID lines in the file and set it to the MAC address.

   For example: ethernet[n].address = 00:50:56:XX:YY:ZZ

   In this line, the fourth pair of numbers, XX, must be a valid hexadecimal number between 00h and 3Fh, and YY and ZZ must be valid hexadecimal numbers between 00h and FFh. You must use this format. Workstation Pro virtual machines do not support arbitrary MAC addresses.

   A value for XX:YY:ZZ that is unique among your hard-coded addresses avoids conflicts between the automatically assigned MAC addresses and the manually assigned addresses.