Understanding VRRP
The Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) feature allows for transparent failover at the first-hop IP router, enabling a group of routers to form a single virtual router.
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VRRP is supported over VRF. |
VRRP Overview
A LAN client can use a dynamic process or static configuration to determine which router should be the first hop to a particular remote destination. The client examples of dynamic router discovery are as follows:
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Proxy ARP—The client uses Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) to get the destination it wants to reach, and a router responds to the ARP request with its own MAC address.
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Routing protocol—The client listens to dynamic routing protocol updates (for example, from Routing Information Protocol [RIP]) and forms its own routing table.
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IRDP (ICMP Router Discovery Protocol) client—The client runs an Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) router discovery client.
The drawback to dynamic discovery protocols is that they incur some configuration and processing overhead on the LAN client. Also, in the event of a router failure, the process of switching to another router can be slow.
An alternative to dynamic discovery protocols is to statically configure a default router on the client. This approach simplifies client configuration and processing, but creates a single point of failure. If the default gateway fails, the LAN client is limited to communicating only on the local IP network segment and is cut off from the rest of the network.
The Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) feature can solve the static configuration problem. VRRP is an IP routing redundancy protocol designed to allow for transparent failover at the first-hop IP router. VRRP enables a group of routers to form a single virtual router . The LAN clients can then be configured with the virtual router as their default gateway. The virtual router, representing a group of routers, is also known as a VRRP group.
For example, Basic VRRP Topology shows a LAN topology in which VRRP is configured. In this example, Routers A, B, and C are VRRP routers (routers running VRRP) that compose a virtual router. The IP address of the virtual router is the same as that configured for the interface of Router A (10.0.0.1).
Because the virtual router uses the IP address of the physical interface of Router A, Router A assumes the role of the IP address owner. As the IP address owner virtual router, Router A controls the IP address of the virtual router and is responsible for forwarding packets sent to this IP address. Clients 1 through 3 are configured with the default gateway IP address of 10.0.0.1.
Routers B and C function as backup virtual routers. If the IP address owner virtual router fails, the router configured with the higher priority becomes the IP address owner virtual router and provides uninterrupted service for the LAN hosts. When Router A recovers, it becomes the IP address owner virtual router again.
Note |
We recommend that you disable Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) on switch ports to which the virtual routers are connected. Enable RSTP or rapid-PVST on the switch interfaces if the switch supports these protocols. |
Multiple Virtual Router Support
You can configure up to 100 virtual routers on a router interface. You can configure up to 256 virtual routers on a router interface. The actual number of virtual routers that a router interface can support depends on the following factors:
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Router processing capability
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Router memory capability
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Router interface support of multiple MAC addresses
In a topology where multiple virtual routers are configured on a router interface, the interface can act as an IP address owner for one or more virtual routers and as a backup for one or more virtual routers.
VRRP Router Priority
An important aspect of the VRRP redundancy scheme is VRRP router priority. Priority determines the role that each VRRP router plays and what happens if the IP address owner virtual router fails.
If a VRRP router owns the IP address of the virtual router and the IP address of the physical interface, this router functions as a IP address owner virtual router.
If no VRRP router owns the IP address, the priority of a VRRP router, combined with the reempt settings, determines if a VRRP router functions as an IP address owner router or a backup virtual router. By default, the highest priority VRRP router functions as IP address owner router, and all the others function as backups. Priority also determines the order of ascendancy to becoming an IP address owner virtual router if the IP address owner virtual router fails. You can configure the priority of each backup virtual router with a value of 1 through 254, using the vrrp priority command.
For example, if Router A, the IP address owner virtual router in a LAN topology, fails, an election process takes place to determine if backup virtual Routers B or C should take over. If Routers B and C are configured with the priorities of 101 and 100, respectively, Router B is elected to become IP address owner virtual router because it has the higher priority. If Routers B and C are both configured with the priority of 100, the backup virtual router with the higher IP address is elected to become the IP address owner virtual router.
By default, a preemptive scheme is enabled whereby a higher-priority backup virtual router that becomes available takes over from the current IP address owner virtual router. You can disable this preemptive scheme using the vrrp preempt disable command. If preemption is disabled, the backup virtual router that is elected to become IP address owner router upon the failure of the original higher priority IP address owner router, remains the IP address owner router even if the original IP address owner virtual router recovers and becomes available again.
VRRP Advertisements
The IP address owner virtual router sends VRRP advertisements to other VRRP routers in the same group. The advertisements communicate the priority and state of the IP address owner virtual router. The VRRP advertisements are encapsulated in IP packets and sent to the IP Version 4 multicast address assigned to the VRRP group. The advertisements are sent every second by default; the interval is configurable.
Benefits of VRRP
The benefits of VRRP are as follows:
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Redundancy— VRRP enables you to configure multiple routers as the default gateway router, which reduces the possibility of a single point of failure in a network.
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Load Sharing—You can configure VRRP in such a way that traffic to and from LAN clients can be shared by multiple routers, thereby sharing the traffic load more equitably among available routers.
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Multiple Virtual Routers—VRRP supports up to 100 virtual routers (VRRP groups) on a router interface, subject to the platform supporting multiple MAC addresses. You can configure up to 256 virtual routers on a router interface. Multiple virtual router support enables you to implement redundancy and load sharing in your LAN topology.
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Multiple IP Addresses—The virtual router can manage multiple IP addresses, including secondary IP addresses. Therefore, if you have multiple subnets configured on an Ethernet interface, you can configure VRRP on each subnet.
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Preemption—The redundancy scheme of VRRP enables you to preempt a backup virtual router that has taken over for a failing IP address owner virtual router with a higher-priority backup virtual router that has become available.
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Text Authentication—You can ensure that VRRP messages received from VRRP routers that comprise a virtual router are authenticated by configuring a simple text password.
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Advertisement Protocol—VRRP uses a dedicated Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) standard multicast address (224.0.0.18) for VRRP advertisements. This addressing scheme minimizes the number of routers that must service the multicasts and allows test equipment to accurately identify VRRP packets on a segment. The IANA assigns VRRP the IP protocol number 112.
Hot Restartability for VRRP
In the event of failure of a VRRP process in one group, forced failovers in peer VRRP IP address owner router groups should be prevented. Hot restartability supports warm RP failover without incurring forced failovers to peer VRRP routers.
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