Virtual Lab fail to power on

[jeromep]

I made a new Virtual Lab and Application Group, and Veeam seems to be unable to power on the machines due to the MAC address, any idea ?

<code>
Module DevicePowerOn power on failed.
Could not set up "macAddress" for ethernet0.
Invalid MAC address specified.
00:0c:29:ba:8b:0f is not an allowed VPX-assigned Ethernet address.
</code>

[Gostev]

Invalid MAC address specified.
00:0c:29:ba:8b:0f is not an allowed VPX-assigned Ethernet address.

What it says... looking at your MAC address, it is indeed invalid. My guess is either you created this VM in ESX 3.x or Workstation 6.x then brought it into ESX 4.x. Or, it was created on a standalone ESX that was brought into a VC.

A MAC staring with 00:0c:29 should be of “generated” type, where if it is a “VPX” MAC it should start with 00:50:56.

Here is a small reference to look at, basically VMware MAC addresses can be one of 3 types.

VMX value for this parametet is ethernet0.addressType

generated = autocreated by the MUI (will have a 00:0c:29 address)
vpx = autocreated by Virtual Center (will have a 00:50:56 address)
static = hard coded by you to a valid MAC address range that is registered to VMware

You can fix this by editing VM configuration to make MAC address type match value, and creating backup file again.

[jeromep]

Changed from generated to vpx and replaced 00:0c:29 to 00:50:56 and it worked except one VM which was in the range of 00:50:56:00:, changed to 00:50:56:93: and it was fixed.

[theark]

HI, I have this same issue. My MAC is also in the range 00:0c:29. It is a VMX3Net adapter and the MAC is set to automatic. I can't power down the VM as its a production VM and I have no time to take it down. Can I change the MAC via ESXi? Also, I can't understand why this MAC is invalid if that is the automatic address assigned to the VM by ESXi when I created it. Whats wrong with that?

[theark]

To make things even more difficult the VMis an SBS 2003 VM. This means if I change the MAC address it will basically screw up everything in the registry that relates to it... which is a lot. You just can't change things like MAC addresses in SBS 2003 and expect it to work properly after unfortunately.

[foggy]

As stated in the post above, most likely your VM was created outside vCenter Server and assigned MAC is not supported. So the only way is to change it using the ethernet0.generatedAddress parameter in virtual machine configuration file (.vmx).

Btw, why do you think you can't change MAC on SBS 2003? Do you have some kind of specific DHCP policy? 'Cause you generally can change a burned out NIC in a physical server running SBS 2003 without any consequences..

[theark]

I've had major issues in the past when changing anything to do with networking in SBS 2003. The ICW flat out doesn't work after you've done a few updates among other things so I'd prefer not to change the MAC address if I can avoid it.

I did indeed create the VM directly on ESXi before adding it to the VC.

I still don't get what difference the MAC address makes to be honest but it looks like i'll have to change it over Christmas.

[foggy]

I still don't get what difference the MAC address makes to be honest but it looks like i'll have to change it over Christmas.

VMware has registered the corresponding range as unique for their devices and does not allow to use addresses outside this range.

[theark]

Any way I can change the MAC on a backup before loading it in a Virtual Lab? I need to restore some SharePoint files but can't as I cannot power on my backup.

[foggy]

Do you really need the Virtual lab to restore files? For the one-time operation you can perform Instant Restore of a VM (just do not power it on immediately) and edit its vmx before powering it on.

[theark]

Yes I do as its just a couple of files from sharepoint that a user has deleted.