Replica VM Cannot Be Powered On

Product version: 9.0

Last modified: 27 September 2019

Problem

The replica VM cannot be powered on. The following message appears:

Failed to start the virtual machine.

Module DevicePowerOn power on failed. Could not set up "macAddress" for ethernet0.

Invalid MAC address specified. [MAC_address] is not an allowed static Ethernet address.

It conflicts with VMware reserved MACs.

Background

NAKIVO Backup & Replication replicates a variety of VM properties, including the MAC address. In some cases, the target ESXi host cannot power on the replica VM when its MAC address is not within the standard VMware range.

Solution

The workaround is described in the VMware knowledge base.