Configure the MAC address

This task allows you to manually assign MAC addresses to interfaces, including active and standby MAC addresses for high availability configurations.

You might need to manually assign a MAC address. You can also set the Active and Standby MAC addresses on the Devices > Device Management window by choosing High Availability from the Add drop-down list. If you set the MAC address for an interface on both screens, the addresses on the Interfaces > Advanced tab take precedence.

Note

For container instances, even if you are not sharing a subinterface, if you manually configure MAC addresses, make sure you use unique MAC addresses for all subinterfaces on the same parent interface to ensure proper classification.

Procedure

Step 1

Select Devices > Device Management and click Edit (edit icon) for your Firewall Threat Defense device. The Interfaces page is selected by default.

Step 2

Click Edit (edit icon) for the interface you want to edit.

Step 3

Click the Advanced tab.

The Information tab is selected.

Step 4

(For clustering in individual interface mode) Choose a MAC address pool from the drop-down list.

You can add MAC address pools according to Configure address pools.

Step 5

(For other modes) Set the active and standby MAC addresses.

  1. In the Active MAC Address field, enter a MAC address in H.H.H format, where H is a 16-bit hexadecimal digit.

    For example, the MAC address 00-0C-F1-42-4C-DE would be entered as 000C.F142.4CDE. The MAC address must not have the multicast bit set, that is, the second hexadecimal digit from the left cannot be an odd number.

  2. In the Standby MAC Address field, enter a MAC address for use with High Availability.

    If the active unit fails over and the standby unit becomes active, the new active unit starts using the active MAC addresses to minimize network disruption, while the old active unit uses the standby address.

Step 6

Click OK.

Step 7

Click Save.

You can now go to Deploy > Deploy and deploy the policy to assigned devices. The changes are not active until you deploy them.