Patent ID: 7724747

Claim:
An apparatus for creating a media access control (MAC) address for a first device, comprising: a management tool coupled to an Ethernet adapter and a partition, that: obtains one or more identifiers; obtains a first MAC address; and creates at least a second MAC address based on the one or more identifiers and the first MAC address; and a hosting partition coupled to the management tool, that employs the second MAC address, wherein the management tool creates the second and a third MAC address based on the one or more identifiers and the first MAC address; and wherein the hosting partition: employs the second MAC address as an address of a hosted partition of the first device; and while employing the second MAC address as the address of the hosted partition: detects another device using the second address on the same portion of the network; employs the third MAC address as the address of the hosted partition of the first device; and updates a table entry in the Ethernet adapter used by the first device from the second MAC address to the third MAC address.