In a Hyper-V host, the MAC addresses received by the VM’s network adapters are dynamic and are defined by the range of the host. I don’t want to repeat myself, I have written an article on this subject.
However, there are several cases that we need to have a static MAC address on a VM. For example, when we want to do DHCP Filtering or DHCP Reservations, or if an inventory service or even some application’s license is linked to a MAC address. In such a case, when we move the VM to another Hyper-V host, it must keep the same MAC address. Otherwise, if it had a dynamic address then it would get a new one.
Let’s see how we set a static MAC address to a VM in Hyper-V. As always, this can be done either through Hyper-V Manager or PowerShell.
Set static MAC address using Hyper-V Manager
First, make sure the VM is not running.
Open Hyper-V Manager and then VM settings. Here, expand the Network Adapter and go to Advanced Features.
To set the VM with a static MAC address, enable the Static option and enter the address you want.
Set static MAC address using PowerShell
This is done using the Set-VMNetworkAdapter cmdlet as you can view below.
Set-VMNetworkAdapter -VMName SRV01 -StaticMacAddress “00112233445566”
Finally, note that when you set up a static MAC address for a VM, be sure it is not within the dynamic address range generated by the Hyper-V host. If it is within the range, then it is possible to give the same address to another VM as the host does not control the management between static and dynamic addresses.
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