3

I have a registered RHEL9 VM and recently I have cloned a copy of it by restoring from the latest Veeam backup.

Then I changed the IP, gateway, also /etc/hosts file and regenerate /etc/machine-id file (also /var/lib/dbus/machine-id)

Then I executed subscription-manager unregister and subscription-manager clean on both VMs. Also I have logined to web console of Redhat Hybrid Cloud Console to check there is no relevant systems registered.

Then I executed subscrption-manager register for both VMs, and expected that there will be two new entries on the Redhat Hybrid Cloud Console. However, I found that there is always only one entry, and seems the VMs were overwritting each other.

I have checked they have two different IPs, machine IDs, subscription-manager identity, still it seems when I try to register both, Redhat sees them as same system.

My question is what is the possible cause of this behaviour and how can I resolve it properly?

2025-01-06 Quick Update:

Following the suggested answer, I try to update the MAC Address, but Redhat seems still cannot tell they are two different VMs. Below is my current configure of original VM and restored VM.

  • Original VM:

IP and MAC Address

enter image description here

/etc/machine-id and /var/lib/dbus/machine-id

enter image description here

subscription-manager identity

enter image description here

  • Restored VM:

IP and MAC Address

enter image description here

/etc/machine-id and /var/lib/dbus/machine-id

enter image description here

subscription-manager identity

enter image description here

shole
  • 103

2 Answers2

5

Red Hat Subscription Manager uses several identifiers to uniquely identify systems. MAC addresses are one of the key identifiers use, so if two VMs have the same MAC address, they appear as the same system.

Your easiest fix is to modify the MAC address of the cloned VM in the VMware ESXi or vSphere client.

  • Generate a new MAC by toggling between Automatic and Manual
  • Or manually specify a new MAC address of your choosing

enter image description here

After that, you can subscription-manager unregister and subscription-manager clean

Re-register with subscription-manager register

ewwhite
  • 201,205
1

After days, I have solved the issue. Turnsout there are several places I have to change:

  1. .vmx file - Change the MAC address method to static, also change generated address to address and hard code a different MAC address
  2. /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections - Edit connection uuid, ethernet MAC address and IP address
  3. Change /etc/hosts file and /etc/machine-id

Now Redhat can distinguish two VMs finally. I accept ewwhite's answer as his answer also inspired me in the process.

shole
  • 103