Is it possible to have same MAC address on multiple NICs plugged to same Linux computer?

Question

Can I have multiple NICs in one computer, having same MAC address? OS - Ubuntu Linux. Thanks

Sun Sparc systems had all NICs on the same MAC address. This gave no end of trouble when plugging more than one NIC into the same switch (e.g. with different VLANs). — wurtel, May 15 '19 at 13:38

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered May 15 '19 at 13:39

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Technically it is possible. But the reality is that a lot of funny (and painful) things will start happening. So better do not do it.

If you have a special case we can work with that.

answered May 15 '19 at 13:39

zeridon

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 15 '19 at 13:40

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Yep, it's possible. To change the MAC address you can use ip command:

ip link set dev <iface> address <mac>

answered May 15 '19 at 13:40

Anton Danilov

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered May 15 '19 at 13:41

Is it possible to have same MAC address on multiple NICs plugged to same Linux computer?

Yes.

Will that work as desired/expected?
Probably not.
For instance MAC-addresses are supposed to be unique within the same broadcast domain for TCP/IP to work as designed.

e.g. Duplicate MAC address on the same LAN possible?
Can duplicate MAC addresses on same LAN cause trouble?

Is it possible to have same MAC address on multiple NICs plugged to same Linux computer?

3 Answers3