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kacsp
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Restored VMs with duplicate MAC Addresses

Post by kacsp »

My problem is that restoring a number of VMs from a single Backed-up source VM (backed-up using VeeamZIP) has created new VMs but all with the same MAC Address. My understanding was that each new VM should receive a unique, or at least random, MAC Address during the restore process. Could anyone please clarify what should be happening here?

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Vitaliy S.
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Re: Restored VMs with duplicate MAC Addresses

Post by Vitaliy S. »

Do you have a static or dynamic MAC address for these VMs? Every restored VM should have their own MAC address. Can you please tell me from which source VM was the new MAC address taken?
kacsp
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Re: Restored VMs with duplicate MAC Addresses

Post by kacsp »

I've now set static MAC addresses on the restored VMs to avoid conflicts. But before I changed this, all the restored VMs were set to to be assigned an 'Automatic' MAC address, with this setting taken from the original VeeamZIPed source VM.

The problem is that the restored VMs all had the same MAC address. I don't have access to the original source VM at the moment so I can't check to see if it's MAC is the same as the restored versions. But the point is that 4 VMs restored as new, renamed VMs had the same MAC address (this also happened in another smaller group too).

VMs were restored using 'Restore entire VM' > 'Restore to a new location, or with different settings'.
Vitaliy S.
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Re: Restored VMs with duplicate MAC Addresses

Post by Vitaliy S. »

I will ask our QC team to take a closer look at this scenario, however the restored VMs should have the same MAC address as a source VM. After vCenter Server detects this conflict it should automatically change the MAC address of the restored VM given that it is configured to use "Automatic" MAC address assignment.
kacsp
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Re: Restored VMs with duplicate MAC Addresses

Post by kacsp »

This is a standalone ESXi 5.5 Host (licensed), if that makes any difference?
Vitaliy S.
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Re: Restored VMs with duplicate MAC Addresses

Post by Vitaliy S. »

Does not matter, as MAC change should be changed anyway. Can you please send the screenshot to our support team where all restored VMs have the same MAC address?
kacsp
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Re: Restored VMs with duplicate MAC Addresses

Post by kacsp »

I've been talking to Support about this issue for the past few weeks (Case 00684632). No complaints there, but we've worked through a few things and I'd like some forum comment on what we've seen. My last email to Support sums up my understanding (if it's correct), so I'd like to receive comment back on what seems to me an issue with Veeam's MAC address management during certain restore scenarios. Here goes:

In light of everything we’ve looked at up until now, I must admit I’m struggling to exactly understand the logic of how Veeam manages MAC Address assignments during the various restore scenarios. Please correct me if I wrong in any of what follows:

A straight restore ('Restore entire VM' > 'Restore to the original location') of a VM to its original location maintains its original settings, replacing the original VM altogether, will not touch the uuid.action = "keep" line in the VM’s .vmx file, and so the original MAC Address will be used.

Similarly, restoring a VM to a new location with changed settings (' Restore entire VM' > 'Restore to a new location, or with different settings’), will also not touch the uuid.action = "keep" line in the VM’s .vmx file, and again the original MAC Address will be used?

In all of the VMs I’m talking about here, the line entry uuid.action = "keep" line in the VM’s .vmx file wasn’t either added or removed by me, but it remains unchanged by Veeam in both restore scenarios above.

So, to avoid any MAC conflicts, it looks like the only choices I currently have when using the 'Restore to a new location, or with different settings’ option are, before booting the restored VM, either to manually edit the Veeam restored VM’s VMX file to remove the uuid.action = "keep" line, or alternatively, set the network adaptor MAC address to Manual and paste in a new MAC Address?

But honestly, if I’m restoring a VM – whether using 'Restore to the original location' or 'Restore to a new location, or with different settings’ I should not really have to be concerned about MAC Address assignment and whether or not a conflict will occur. The logic of managing any MAC Address changes needed in the above two scenarios ought to be fully managed by Veeam (just as vSphere seems to take care of any MAC Address changes needed when adding a VM to the Inventory manually).

Taking all this into consideration, my thinking is that it makes no sense for Veeam to offer a 'Restore to a new location, or with different settings’ option if this will then restore a VM with the same MAC as the original, so risking a MAC Address conflict due to the fact that the original VM might still be running on the network.

I think that in the Restore Wizard, there really ought be an option to generate a new MAC address during the 'Restore to a new location, or with different settings’ process (just as VMware gives you a Copied or Moved selection choice). That, or MAC address generation should be better taken care of automatically to avoid potential conflicts for a given restore scenario.

Thanks
michaelryancook
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Re: Restored VMs with duplicate MAC Addresses

Post by michaelryancook »

Unfortunately I cannot comment on the mac address issue but I do see the sense in Veeam having the 'Restore to a new location, or with different settings’ option even with this issue. I think for most people that option is used to restore a VM to an isolated environment for testing or verification. I can't see a scenario where I would restore a VM with different settings in a location where a conflicting MAC addresses would even be an issue.

It seems as if you are trying to use VeeamZip to create a pseudo vCenter clone process. This assumption on my part is based on restoring a VeeamZiped VM mulitple times. If this is the case maybe VMWare Converter Standalone Client would work better? I think it would be a fair bit slower though. Or something like this process: https://nchrissos.wordpress.com/2014/03 ... icial-way/

Good luck with this issue and sorry if my assumption is off base.
mernst
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[MERGED] Feature request for redirected restore

Post by mernst »

Hi

If a VM is restored with "Restore to an new location", restore wizard at network part should prompt question for using same MAC address as original server or if it should generate a new one.
The problem is, if the restore is to an other vCenter environment, VMWare can not check for duplicate MAC address.

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Markus
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Re: Restored VMs with duplicate MAC Addresses

Post by Shestakov »

Hi Markus,
In general your request makes sense, but could you elaborate on your use case, please? Have you experienced MAC addresses conflicts?
Thanks for the feedback!
mernst
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Re: Restored VMs with duplicate MAC Addresses

Post by mernst »

Hi Nikita

Environment:
We have 5 hosts and 2 vcenters. 3 are in a cluster and are the main hosts with the real machines running on(1. vcenter) , 1 backup host and 1 host is off-site (2. vcenter). Both using VMWare essential licenses.
I had restored 1 VM with instant recovery to backup host in own network space, analogue as SureBackup this do. BTW: MAC setting is set to "Auto".
Later we needed Internet-Access, which is not working over proxy. So we have change IP address of server switched it to real network. I had not realized, that the MAC address was restored from original server and VMware had not changed it, since for the 2. vcenter the MAC was unique. So we had duplicate MAC address in our network, which was bad.

regards
Markus
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Re: Restored VMs with duplicate MAC Addresses

Post by Shestakov »

Thanks for the reply Markus.

Indeed it makes sense. And how often do you change MAC addresses manually?

MAC address duplication relates not only to restore process by the way.
mernst
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Re: Restored VMs with duplicate MAC Addresses

Post by mernst »

Hi Nikita

Normally I let it on auto, I think I have changed less than 5 MAC addresses.

regards
Markus
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Re: Restored VMs with duplicate MAC Addresses

Post by Shestakov »

I`ve got it Markus,
Just trying to measure the issue to understand if it is worth making the wizard more complicated.
Thanks again for the feedback!
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