PD16 on Big Sur: VM not using the configured MAC Address

M

MatthiasS9

Member
I have a Big Sur host with PD 16.0.1, I have installed and configured a 10.15 VM using Bridged Network via Ethernet with a dedicated MAC address. When the VM boots it shows the correct MAC address in the System Preferences, but it appears to use a completely different MAC address. Since the MAC address used is not registered in our network, the VM does not get network access. When I register the MAC address used in our network DB, the VM gets proper network access.

Any idea why the VM is not using the MAC it is supposed to use, and even displays in the System Preferences and ifconfig?
 
And after rebooting another 10.15. VM hosted on another Mac with PD 16.0.1, it also has lost its network connection, probably for the same reason :(
 
Sure, this appears to be a feature, and not a bug due to wierd circumstances. This makes using Parallels under macOS 11 very cumbersome. I hope Apple and Parallels find a way to fix this, but I fear that will take some time :(
 
Same problem here. Is the (wrong) Mac address that the outside world sees constant, or does it change after rebooting? In the former case, I can live with this.
 
I'm also having the same issue. I'm using Bridged with Default Adapter, and Virtio adapter for RHEL 7.6 VM. The configured MAC address in Parallels Network adapter matches what the OS reports, but not what is being used to gain an IP address. I use reserved addressing by MAC, and all my VM's are getting different IP addresses now.

I've tried deleting and re-adding the adapter, changing the NIC type, and changing the binding to be a specific adapter. None of these have resulted in getting the correct MAC address. This only started happening after the Big Sur upgrade. Same version of Parallels (Version 16.1.0 (48950))
before and after upgrade produces different results.
 
Fortunately it appears to be constant. It is still annoying having to find out which MAC address is used, since the popup from the captive network is neither shown on the host nor the client. But it would be a complete desaster if the MAC used would change all the time.
 
Doing further tests it seems it uses the same hardware address for all client VMs! If that is true it is even worse than I thought
 
I'm having the same issue as well, latest version of Big Sur and Parallels 16. Bridged mode doesn't work consistently, browsers half-load sites or not at all and my router is reporting incorrect MAC addresses from Parallels. Shared networking is fine.
 
Same issue here as well running latest versions of Big Sur and Parallels 16 Pro. The MAC address listed in the VM config screen and inside the VM itself does not match the MAC address my router sees. This happens for all VMs I've tested (Linux and Windows) so it doesn't appear to be an OS issue.
 
MatthiasS9 said:
Doing further tests it seems it uses the same hardware address for all client VMs! If that is true it is even worse than I thought
Click to expand...

Further tests show that each VM does use its own arbitrary MAC address. I think the impression that each VM uses the same MAC was the result of a clone attempts that badly failed - so badly that I had to remove both VMs and start from scratch :(
 
Same here. The MAC address listed in the VM config screen and inside the VM itself does not match the MAC address my DHCP server sees
 
Same problem here on Big Sur with PD16.

Parallels Configuration on => "Windows 10" => "Hardware" => "Network" => "Default Adapter" => "Advanced Settings" => "MAC" value:
00:1C:42:36:CE:87

Windows 10 VM Physical Address (MAC):
00:1C:42:36:CE:87

"Real" MAC on my router:
12:79:3f:4a:c1:87
 
Same issue here with Parallels Desktop 16.1.1 on an iMac Pro with bridged networking against the wired Ethernet: An external DHCP server is not seeing the configured DHCP server after upgrading from Mojave to Big Sur 11.1.

If I configure the desired IP as a static IP it works, but the external DHCP server sees the wrong MAC address.
 
Just in case it helps: I had the same trouble with the masked Mac Address. I found by shutting the VM down and changing the Network Hardware to a REALTEK Adapter (In Network-Advanced Settings) seems to have solved the issue. so far anyway.
 
TrentR said:
... changing the Network Hardware to a REALTEK Adapter ...
I tried swinging my CentOS VM from the Virtio adapter to the REALTEK adapter - interestingly, no network connection was made (under any MAC address).
I then gave the Intel PRO/1000 a try. Like the Virtio adapter an IP address was obtained, but using an incorrect MAC address.

With the Virtio or Intel adapter selected, the VM seems to pick up a DHCP address from my ASUS router - if I utilize the incorrect MAC address for assigning the IP. Oddly, the ASUS does not report the VM as connected - which makes me think Parallels is capturing the offered DHCP address, but performing some kind of translation. The "IP Scanner" application on my Mac does see the network traffic for the VM - under the ASUS-assigned IP address and the bogus Parallels MAC address.
Click to expand...
 
Mine was quite the opposite.. I tried the Virtio adapter and got no connection. I only noticed the issue when some software (that doesn't like NAT) didn't work, upon checking the dhcp reservation I found, as above, a masked MAC Address. Hope you figure your out!
 
Of note, this same problem does not happen with VMWare Fusion on Big Sur. It can't be a limit of Big Sur if VMWare found a way around it without even requiring a kernel extension.
VMWare Fusion doesn't have Parallels' Windows performance or nicer UI. This isn't a hint to switch, but it is a data point for the Parallels devs.
 
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