vmware / centos 5 network settings

copied vm centos 5 machines with fixed ip settings to a different esxi server. put the machines in a vm net with an active dhcp server. the centos machines switched at boot-time to dhcp and automatically disabled the fixed ip settings. centos creates a new interface configuration file with dhcp settings. the old config file is backed. why ? the mac adress has changed ! (vmware moving). to prevent this you should probably configure the mac adresses from the old esxi system or adjust the network cfg files on centos.