device eth0 has mac address XX instead of configured address

Remove the HWADDR= line from /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 and this will go away.

I thought I was being helpful by not being specific on the CentOS 5.4 upgrade thread. Oh well.

This is an issue that CentOS just introduced, presumably in 5.4.

There was a deployment of CentOS a couple versions back – I want to say 5.2 -- that may have had a slight oversight in its ifcfg-eth0 as shipped to customers. The MAC address of the virtual container we built the image on may have been included.

This apparently has never been a problem until now, so removing the HWADDR= line will fix these things going forward.

@jed:

Remove the HWADDR= line from /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 and this will go away.

Really thanks jed.

I'm guessing this is only impacting DHCP users?

@BarkerJr:

I'm guessing this is only impacting DHCP users?
Your guess is as good as mine, as "users" is barely plural. One ticket and this post are all I've heard of it – coincidence maybe, but if more people experience it we'll know it's an issue.