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How to create a virtual MAC address for a failover IP

Reviewed on 12 February 2024Published on 29 July 2021

Virtualization requires, in most cases, that you configure additional IP addresses on your dedicated server to provide network connectivity to your virtual machines.

Requirements
  • You have an account and are logged into the Dedibox console
  • You have created a Dedibox dedicated server
  • You have ordered a failover IP
Note

Failover IPs are associated with the Dedibox product and cannot be moved to a different product category. For example, a failover IP can be moved to another Dedibox server, but it cannot be transferred to other service types like Load Balancers or Elastic Metal servers.

In general, two connectivity modes are possible for the networking of virtual machines:

  • Bridge
  • NAT

Bridged network

In bridge mode, the network equipment sees your server and your virtual machines as different servers. For security reasons, no other network equipment is allowed on our network, except for the MAC address of your physical network card.

If you start a virtual machine in bridge mode, protection will be activated on the switch, and your network port will be closed. You can add virtual MAC addresses known and allowed on the network to solve this problem.

NATed network

In this network setup, all of your virtual machines are assigned the same public IP address through a NAT configuration. This arrangement makes your physical server and its virtual machines appear as a unified entity. The only MAC address that is broadcasted on the network is that of your physical network card. As a result, there is no need for individual virtual MAC addresses in this configuration.

How to add a virtual MAC address

  1. Click Server > Server list to display a list of your physical machines.
  2. Select the server you want to configure and click Manage. The servers’ status page displays.
  3. Scroll down to the network configuration section and click + Info next to the failover IP you want to configure. The advanced configuration displays.
  4. Click Add virtual MAC. The virtual MAC configuration displays.
  5. Click the settings icon (cogwheel) next to the IP address you want to configure. Then select the type of MAC address and click Add … virtual MAC address.
    Note

    Each MAC address is associated with a manufacturer/organization. We provide virtual MAC addresses from the following Organizationally Unique Identifier (OUI):

    • OUI VMWare: 00:50:56
    • OUI Xen: 00:16:3e
    • OUI KVM: 52:54:00 You can choose the OUI of your preference. They are technically interchangeable.

Once the virtual MAC is activated, use it to configure the network of your VM.

How to delete a virtual MAC address

You can remove the virtual MAC address associated to a failover IP if you do not require it any longer.

Tip

If you delete a virtual MAC address that is shared by different IPs, this action will only affect the selected MAC address and IP. Any other IPs will remain as they are.

  1. Click Server > Server list to display a list of your physical machines.

  2. Select the server you want to configure and click Manage. The servers’ status page displays.

  3. Scroll down to the network configuration section and click + Info next to the failover IP you want to configure. The advanced configuration displays.

  4. Click Edit. The virtual MAC configuration displays.

  5. Click the settings icon (cogwheel) next to the IP address you want to configure. Then click Delete virtual MAC address.

    The configuration of the failover IP will be updated, and the virtual MAC address will be deleted.

See also
How to configure a failover IP on Windows ServerHow to configure a multi-IP virtual MAC group
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