Local MAC address

Set a locally-administered MAC address for an OSA LAN port for the following reasons:
  • A local MAC address can be easier to identify by network personnel because it conforms to the network's or site's naming convention.
  • A local MAC address does not need to be changed if the OSA is physically replaced. A replaced OSA has its own universal MAC address already with it.

A local MAC address must be unique within the network in which it is used and administered by a local authority. It is therefore a unicast MAC address.

You can set a local MAC address for a port with the Local MAC address parameter for any OSA-Express feature. Follow one of the procedures in Setting MAC addresses. You can also use single object operations through the hardware management console to set a local MAC address for a port. For procedural information, see the operator's guide for the hardware platform.

For a local MAC address to take effect, the OSA port must be configured offline from, and then back online to, all the images to which the OSA feature is defined.

Parent topic: MAC addresses