Sometimes we have the need to change the MAC address in a virtual machine, usually when we want to keep the MAC that we had on a physical computer or for reasons of applications that control it (license servers..). In this document we will see how to force a MAC address on a VM since VMware will allow us only the next range: 00:50:56:00:00:00 – 00:50:56:3F:FF:FF.

If we modify the MAC address in a normal way when starting the VM, it will give us the following error: “The MAC Address entered is not in the valid range. Valid values are between 00:50:56:00:00:00 and 00:50:56:3F:FF:FF.

To achieve this, edit the VM configuration file (.vmx) with the following settings:

ethernetX.checkMACAddress = “False”
# ethernetX.addressType = “generated”
ethernetX.addressType = “static”
# ethernetX.generatedAddress = “00:0c:29:c7:XX:XX”
ethernetX.Address = “00:24:94:AA:XX:XX”

And we will be able to start the MV without problems!!!