How to identify the IP and MAC address of a sequencing instrument

The Internet Protocol (IP) and Media Access Control (MAC) addresses for an instrument are often used by IT/Networking teams to identify an instrument on the network and assign special security permissions. These will be unique for each Network Interface Card (NIC) on the instrument. Most Illumina instruments have 2-3 NICs available, generally one for external connections to a network and another for the instrument's internal connections.

To identify the IP or MAC addresses of a particular instrument, use the Command Line in Windows or the Terminal in Linux.

**In Windows Operating System (OS) Environments:**1. In the search bar in the bottom left corner, type in cmd and then press enter to open the Command Line interface. 2. In the Command Line, type in ipconfig /all and press enter. 3. The printout will display the IPv4 and Physical Address for each NIC, which are the IP and MAC addresses, respectively.

  • Many instruments will have internal and external-facing NICs; do not modify or alter the settings for the internal-facing NIC.

In Linux OS Environments:

  1. On the Linux desktop, right-click and select 'Open Terminal'.

  2. In the Terminal window, type ifconfig and press Enter.

  3. The printout will display the configuration settings for each NIC on the instrument.

  • inet = IPv4 Address

  • ether = MAC address

  1. For the NextSeq 1000/2000 platforms, there are the following NICs:

  • Enp2s0: Recommended external NIC

  • Enp5s0: Internal NIC

  • Enp6s0: Alternate external NIC

For any feedback or questions regarding this article (Illumina Knowledge Article #2222), contact Illumina Technical Support techsupport@illumina.com.

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