Moved a VM. Duplicate MAC address question.

[cajx]

OK, so I manually moved (really just copied b/c i like having a backup) the VM files from one ESXi box to another (these are standalone /outside of our vCenter system). I put the thing into inventory via the datastore browser. I started it up..., it asks if it was copied or moved, i picked MOVED b/c i didn't want to lose my IP addresses, etc.

Well right after I did that, I did some more reading and found this handy doc:

http://www.systemv.org/vmware_ESXi_survival_guide.pdf

And here is my question. He recommends that you generate a new UUID so that you get a new MAC address. Indeed, my MAC address is the same on the old box and the new, but I will never turn both the old and new copy on at the same time so I wasn't worried. But what are the risks vs. rewards here? I'm just hesitant to go deleting things in the VMX files without understanding them more fully. What do you people recommend?

Thanks.

[karavinds1]

Hello,

As a best practive I would recomment you have a unique MAC address. This will avoid the layer2 confusions.

Aravind K

[cajx]

I went ahead and deleted the specific uuid lines like the pdf in my op said. One exception, I didn't have the uuid.action line. I read about it in the link below and decided it wasn't a big deal. Also that kb article seems to explain when to make a new UUID fairly well.Thanks for the help.

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1541