

So this type of MAC address is going to be the same most of the time as your Initial MAC address.This is the MAC address which operating system reads during boot process from hardware configuration in VMX file and uses it to communicate.There are methods such as OUI (default), Range based and Prefix based that can be used to generate the MAC address.Generally vCenter Server assigns the MAC address to a virtual machine but ESXi also can assign it in the event, vCenter Server is not available.However, there is possibility of changing the initial MAC address of a VM by editing VMX file unlike physical card MAC address which is Burned-in Address (BIA) on the Card.

This MAC address is similar to the MAC address of Physical ethernet card which is hardcoded into the card.Initial MAC address is assigned to a virtual machine (static or dynamic assignment) by vCenter Server or ESXi host and written into VMX file of virtual machine.

In fact it is applicable in physical networking too. There are three types of MAC addresses from operational point of view in virtual networking as listed below. Understanding MAC address types and possibilities of changing MAC address is quite important before we talk about Forged transmit or MAC address change policies.Īnyway, isn’t that sound bit odd? I mean types of MAC addresses, are there any types as such?Īs mentioned earlier, indeed we have. By the way, I am not referring to Static or Dynamic allocation of MAC addresses. So first of all, we will understand concepts related to MAC Address Types in virtual networking. Now that makes it interesting and important as well to know more about it.

Well, these two policies are related to each other. In this post, we are going to discuss MAC address Change and Forged Transmit policy settings. In previous part we explored Promiscuous mode policy.
