This article http://azure.microsoft.com/blog/2014/10/30/multiple-vm-nics-and-network-virtual-appliances-in-azure/ states "
- The order of the NICs inside the VM will be random, but the IP addresses and the corresponding MACs will remain the same.
However, I provisioned a VM using the Set-AzureStaticVNetIP and the MAC address still changes when the VM is shut down from the portal. You will see that the NIC actually is replaced and the Ethernet Adapter name is changed.
I have tried this numerous times using single NICs, multiple NICs, within Availability Sets and without Availability Sets. It doesn't matter, each time the VM is stopped from the portal and restarted the MAC address and the NIC name changes.
What is going on? That article says the MAC address should persist?
David A. Bermingham, MVP, Senior Technical Evangelist, SIOS Technology Corp