Is there a way to set the Docker container's mac address in docker-compose.yml file?

Question

Currently I'm using the following command to start a container with a predefined mac address:

docker run -d --lxc-conf="lxc.network.hwaddr=00:50:56:8E:8B:77:00:00" --name=my_container my_image 

I'd like to know if there was a way to define the mac address of a container declared in a docker-compose.yml file.

Thanks

Cherimoya

Answer 1

You can use mac_address: xyz to configure the service.

services:
  my_container:
    mac_address: 00-50-56...

Both forms of MAC address (00:50:56... and 00-50-56...) should work.

This used to be a "legacy" option but appears to now be fully supported.

Boeschen

Beware of MAC addresses having the lowest bit set in the first byte. That makes the address a multicast address. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_address. Such addresses cannot be assigned by docker. So, that's may be an unlucky example... The mac_address is still described in the current documentation. So IMHO that's not a legacy option. Tried with 3.7 and 3.8 and it works fine. – Saunders

Thanks, they must have changed the status since. I've updated the answer. And also included the MAC address from the question for you ;-) – Boeschen

Answer 2

Since Docker Engine version >=25, the configuration is a bit different. We have to use mac_address inside the networks section as per the documentation.

services:
  my_service:
    image: my_image
    networks:
      my_network:
        mac_address: "02:42:ac:11:00:02"
        
networks:
  my_network:

Burrow

The accepted answer does not work, but this does since the spec has changed. Thank you! – Burn

Answer 3

This is in the feature backlog for Compose but it doesn't look like work has been started yet. Github issue.

Eward