compose: [BUG] Ignored `mac_address` field

Description

I have a macvlan network and a Docker container (deployed through compose) connected to it. I recently updated to compose V2, and since then the mac_address property of my container does not get applied anymore (it used to work fine before).

Compose file:

version: '3.7'

services:
  blocky:
    container_name: blocky
    hostname: blocky
    restart: unless-stopped
    image: spx01/blocky:latest
    mac_address: 2c:4d:54:00:00:01 # MAC address specified here
    networks:
      macvlan:
        ipv4_address: ${BLOCKY_IP} # Env variable properly instantiated
    volumes:
      - ./config/config.yml:/app/config.yml:ro
      - /certificates/blocky/:/certs:ro
    environment:
      TZ: 'Europe/Rome'

networks:
  macvlan:
    external: true

Output of docker inspect blocky (only relevant parts):

[
    {
        "Config": {
            "MacAddress": "2c:4d:54:00:00:01" // Apparently it gets correctly parsed from the compose file
        },
        "NetworkSettings": {
            "MacAddress": "", // But then it does not get set
            "Networks": {
                "macvlan": {
                    "IPAMConfig": {
                        "IPv4Address": "192.168.1.224"
                    },
                    "Gateway": "192.168.0.1",
                    "IPAddress": "192.168.1.224",
                    "IPPrefixLen": 22,
                    "MacAddress": "02:42:c0:a8:01:e0" // And a random one is assigned
                }
            }
        }
    }
]

Output of docker inspect macvlan (only relevant parts):

[
    {
        "Name": "macvlan",
        "Scope": "local",
        "Driver": "macvlan",
        "Containers": {
            "23368919c7ccd73f64f02d7db560c256fd74c528c70e721b72f1d8e8660a384b": {
                "Name": "blocky",
                "EndpointID": "e5dc69402099d43938deafef3172a288abfe26cd2f31702595600f2d2252a8a8",
                "MacAddress": "02:42:c0:a8:01:e0", // Cusom MAC address is not applied
                "IPv4Address": "192.168.1.224/22" // (Even though IP is)
            }
        },
        "Options": {
            "macvlan_mode": "bridge",
            "parent": "enp0s31f6"
        }
    }
]

Docker version

Client: Docker Engine - Community
 Version:           24.0.4
 API version:       1.43
 Go version:        go1.20.5
 Git commit:        3713ee1
 Built:             Fri Jul  7 14:50:55 2023
 OS/Arch:           linux/amd64
 Context:           default

Server: Docker Engine - Community
 Engine:
  Version:          24.0.4
  API version:      1.43 (minimum version 1.12)
  Go version:       go1.20.5
  Git commit:       4ffc614
  Built:            Fri Jul  7 14:50:55 2023
  OS/Arch:          linux/amd64
  Experimental:     false
 containerd:
  Version:          1.6.21
  GitCommit:        3dce8eb055cbb6872793272b4f20ed16117344f8
 runc:
  Version:          1.1.7
  GitCommit:        v1.1.7-0-g860f061
 docker-init:
  Version:          0.19.0
  GitCommit:        de40ad0

Docker compose version

Docker Compose version v2.19.1

About this issue

Original URL
State: closed
Created a year ago
Comments: 22

Links to this issue

Possible compose bug

Most upvoted comments

Thank you. If you don’t mind, either tag this issue or post an answer here if the discussion goes on elsewhere, so we can keep updated.

davidedellagiustina on Sep 5, 2023

I was able to reproduce this issue using a plain docker run ... command and found the root cause: If container is created using network ID as reference (not name) to set ip/mac_address, it seems to be ignored by engine:

$ docker run --network ikuai --mac-address "02:42:ac:11:00:02" --ip "192.168.100.103" -d nginx
9a526c7bbaa05f6614b42348ea7b91821e8c437be2b741cb317b4a5c40d2de92
$ docker inspect 9a | jq '.[] | .NetworkSettings.Networks | .[].MacAddress '
"02:42:ac:11:00:02"

$ docker run --network 44ff686129513f143d697e9e286582afc98f15796767ae0ab150f9885b0a5c6a --mac-address "02:42:ac:11:00:02" --ip "192.168.100.103" -d nginx
2080db34c6703a73a8b306c1df774646fdeb6c7a3f66ca5934ccad9a7365fb8f
$ docker inspect 20 | jq '.[] | .NetworkSettings.Networks | .[].MacAddress '
"02:42:c0:a8:64:67"

The reason we use network IDs is that network name is not guaranteed to be unique (see https://github.com/docker/compose/pull/10612).

ndeloof on Sep 5, 2023

@NonaSuomy I decided to migrate away from the plugin. I’m worried due to its unsupported nature and lack of ongoing development that it will break in the future. I migrated away from DHCP for my containers and am now directly using macvlan with static assignment.

dkrasnove on Oct 9, 2023

Also wanted to report that I am experiencing the same issue. I am using https://github.com/devplayer0/docker-net-dhcp to assign IPs to my containers via DHCP and static MAC/IP mappings. After upgrading to compose v2.20.2, the mac_address option is no longer respected and consequently my containers are no longer leasing the correct IP.

dkrasnove on Sep 10, 2023

I’m running into the same issue with my macvlan network. Some containers have a “random” MAC address (which confused me when going through my network).

brhahlen on Aug 31, 2023