About Static Routing
Routers forward packets using either route information from route table entries that you manually configure or the route information that is calculated using dynamic routing algorithms.
Static routes, which define explicit paths between two routers, cannot be automatically updated. You must manually reconfigure static routes when network changes occur. Static routes use less bandwidth than dynamic routes. No CPU cycles are used to calculate and analyze routing updates.
You can supplement dynamic routes with static routes where appropriate. You can redistribute static routes into dynamic routing algorithms, but you cannot redistribute routing information calculated by dynamic routing algorithms into the static routing table.
You should use static routes in environments where network traffic is predictable and where the network design is simple. You should not use static routes in large, constantly changing networks because static routes cannot react to network changes. Most networks use dynamic routes to communicate between routers but might have one or two static routes configured for special cases. Static routes are also useful for specifying a gateway of last resort (a default router to which all unroutable packets are sent).
Administrative Distance
An administrative distance is the metric used by routers to choose the best path when there are two or more routes to the same destination from two different routing protocols. An administrative distance guides the selection of one routing protocol (or static route) over another, when more than one protocol adds the same route to the unicast routing table. Each routing protocol is prioritized in order of most to least reliable using an administrative distance value.
Static routes have a default administrative distance of 1. A router prefers a static route to a dynamic route because the router considers a route with a low number to be the shortest. If you want a dynamic route to override a static route, you can specify an administrative distance for the static route. For example, if you have two dynamic routes with an administrative distance of 120, you would specify an administrative distance that is greater than 120 for the static route if you want the dynamic route to override the static route.
Directly Connected Static Routes
You must specify only the output interface (the interface on which all packets are sent to the destination network) in a directly connected static route. The router assumes that the destination is directly attached to the output interface and the packet destination is used as the next-hop address. The next hop can be an interface, but only for point-to-point interfaces. For broadcast interfaces, the next hop must be an IPv4 address.
Fully Specified Static Routes
You must specify either the output interface (the interface on which all packets are sent to the destination network) or the next-hop address in a fully specified static route. You can use a fully specified static route when the output interface is a multi-access interface and you need to identify the next-hop address. The next-hop address must be directly attached to the specified output interface.
Floating Static Routes
A floating static route is a static route that the router uses to back up a dynamic route. You must configure a floating static route with a higher administrative distance than the dynamic route that it backs up. In this instance, the router prefers a dynamic route to a floating static route. You can use a floating static route as a replacement if the dynamic route is lost.
 Note |
By default, a router prefers a static route to a dynamic route because a static route has a smaller administrative distance than a dynamic route. |
Remote Next Hops for Static Routes
You can specify the next-hop address of a neighboring router that is not directly connected to the router for static routes with remote (non-directly attached) next hops. If a static route has remote next hops during data forwarding, the next hops are recursively used in the unicast routing table to identify the corresponding directly attached next hops that have reachability to the remote next hops.
Virtualization Support
Static routes support virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) instances.
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