Move ESXi VM and keep MAC address
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Hi Lads and Lasses,
I need to move a VM (ESXi Free) to another host WITHOUT changing the MAC address as it's tied to the license (A very stupid idea IMHO).
Is there a way to move the guest VM (Server 2008) to another host AND keep the MAC address?
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I tried a couple ofmethods last week of manually setting the MAC address but they didn't work for different reasons- editing the VMX last week with another VM but that was unsuccessful as the edited VMX file wasn't recognised (edited on the host, downloaded/edited/uploaded the file again)
- manually setting it in Edit Settings but that conflicted with the protected MAC address list (can I edit that list?)
There were various other methods for reregistering the VM to the inventory, removing from the inventory edit then add to inventory but I couldn't get any of them to work.
Would exporting the server as an OVF template solve this?
Is there another way to get it done? -
I should also add that I am moving to a newer version ESXi 4.x to 5.x
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You can edit settings of the virtual Nic on the esxi vm settings and manually set a mac address.
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@nadnerB said:
- manually setting it in Edit Settings but that conflicted with the protected MAC address list (can I edit that list?
What do you mean by that? Can you post a screenshot of the error you are getting.
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@thecreativeone91 said:
What do you mean by that? Can you post a screenshot of the error you are getting.
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@nadnerB ah. So you used a VMware dynamic one when it was first setup. This should help: https://techwizzardry.wordpress.com/2013/02/04/vsphere-problems-with-licencing-and-mac-addresses-after-5-1-esxi-host-upgrade/
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Thanks for that
I'll have a go at that when I can shut the server down again -
Did you forget to account for the MAC address problem when setting up the VM?
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@scottalanmiller said:
Did you forget to account for the MAC address problem when setting up the VM?
Well, no. I didn't set up the VM and I didn't know about the MAC address problem.
Also, I'm not entirely sure which MAC address problem you are referring to... the one in @thecreativeone91's link or a different one? -
If you want mobile MAC addresses, there is a way to set that up from the beginning. If you use dynamic ones it becomes much more complicated.
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@scottalanmiller said:
If you want mobile MAC addresses, there is a way to set that up from the beginning. If you use dynamic ones it becomes much more complicated.
Yep, I'd forgotten that. Hopefully, I'll remember that for future VM's
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@scottalanmiller said:
Did you forget to account for the MAC address problem when setting up the VM?
I don't know about you, but how often do you learn about the fact that a machine ties it's licensing to a MAC until you try to move said license?
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@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
Did you forget to account for the MAC address problem when setting up the VM?
I don't know about you, but how often do you learn about the fact that a machine ties it's licensing to a MAC until you try to move said license?
Hard to say, can't think of any modern product that we'd be willing to use that would do that. But in theory, you generally know that ahead of time. I'm not sure I've ever heard of someone being caught unaware that the MAC address was the licensing.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
Did you forget to account for the MAC address problem when setting up the VM?
I don't know about you, but how often do you learn about the fact that a machine ties it's licensing to a MAC until you try to move said license?
Hard to say, can't think of any modern product that we'd be willing to use that would do that. But in theory, you generally know that ahead of time. I'm not sure I've ever heard of someone being caught unaware that the MAC address was the licensing.
Well I guess you can count me in that list. I've walked into several shops trying to do a migration not knowing that. Granted it doesn't happen much anymore, but it does on a scanner software I currently employ, luckily a call to their support desk to reset the license and it locks in on the new MAC upon first use.
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@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
Did you forget to account for the MAC address problem when setting up the VM?
I don't know about you, but how often do you learn about the fact that a machine ties it's licensing to a MAC until you try to move said license?
Hard to say, can't think of any modern product that we'd be willing to use that would do that. But in theory, you generally know that ahead of time. I'm not sure I've ever heard of someone being caught unaware that the MAC address was the licensing.
Well I guess you can count me in that list. I've walked into several shops trying to do a migration not knowing that. Granted it doesn't happen much anymore, but it does on a scanner software I currently employ, luckily a call to their support desk to reset the license and it locks in on the new MAC upon first use.
You can count me in on this list as well. Both of the large CAD developers tie their licensing server to a specific MAC address. The good news is that Hyper-V allows you to assign whatever MAC address you want...so that solved that issue.
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@Dashrender said:
Well I guess you can count me in that list. I've walked into several shops trying to do a migration not knowing that.
That's after the fact. We are talking about at deployment time. Migrating something is too late. Did the person installing the application not know?
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
Well I guess you can count me in that list. I've walked into several shops trying to do a migration not knowing that.
That's after the fact. We are talking about at deployment time. Migrating something is too late. Did the person installing the application not know?
Nope they did not, nor did I when I installed the above listed Scanning software. It wasn't until I tried to move the scanner (and software) to another computer and it told me I was out of licenses. Call to the support desk is how I learned it was tied to the MAC.
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@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
Well I guess you can count me in that list. I've walked into several shops trying to do a migration not knowing that.
That's after the fact. We are talking about at deployment time. Migrating something is too late. Did the person installing the application not know?
Nope they did not, nor did I when I installed the above listed Scanning software. It wasn't until I tried to move the scanner (and software) to another computer and it told me I was out of licenses. Call to the support desk is how I learned it was tied to the MAC.
That's REALLY weird. It was a secret licensing that no one was informed about?
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I've always known that when installing. It's part of the planning. A lot of the server side apps for fire, rescue and engineering that have floating licenses client side use the mac to tie in activation on the server side.
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@scottalanmiller said:
That's REALLY weird. It was a secret licensing that no one was informed about?
How licensing works rarely if ever comes up. The end user/installer gets a install file and an installation Key, you install and away you go. I'll admit, I rarely read EULAs, so if it was listed in there that it was tied to the MAC I wouldn't know about it until after the fact.
Our scanner solution definitely didn't spell out the fact that it was tieing it's use to the MAC. And I've installed AutoCAD server before and don't recall it saying that it tied to the MAC either.
Are you saying that either a) you are expressly told in the software you typically deal with, or b) you expressly inquire so you know how it works?
What lead you to asking in the first place?
