Tips
Auditing and Managing ESX VM MAC Addresses
This free tool is great for managing VMware ESX Server virtual MAC addresses.
Chris: I enjoyed your article, "
Virtual Server MAC Address Auditing." I manage ESX servers and was wondering if you had any similar solutions for ESX.
--Matt
Matt, VMware’s SDK allows scripted solutions for nearly anything, and MAC address management is no exception. In fact, there’s a really nice tool already out there that does exactly what you’re looking for.
The Virtual MAC Tool is free to download and use and offers the exact functionality that you’re looking for -- a Windows-based tool that can be used to audit, manage and report on virtual MAC address settings on VMware ESX Server VMs. Virtual MAC Tool was developed by Richard Garsthagen, who is the Technical Marketing Manager- EMEA for VMware. Richard also offers several other handy tools on his site run-virtual.com.
To use the Virtual MAC Tool, you’ll first need to download it here. Once you download the tool, just unzip, use Windows Explorer to navigate to the unzipped files and then double-click on the VirtualMACTool.exe file.
When the Virtual MAC Tool opens, you’ll need to provide the name of the ESX server to connect to, along with your administrative credentials for the server. Upon connecting, you will be able to use the tool to view and manage the virtual MAC addresses for every VM on the ESX system. You can also click on the Report button and save a report to an XML file of all VMs and associated virtual MAC address settings.
The Virtual MAC Tool should provide exactly what you’re looking for, Matt. Happy auditing!