Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (Vrrp); Vrrp Overview - Dell C9000 Series Networking Configuration Manual

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Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol
(VRRP)
Virtual router redundancy protocol (VRRP) is supported on Dell Networking OS.

VRRP Overview

VRRP is designed to eliminate a single point of failure in a statically routed network. Authentication is not
supported on VRRPv3. VRRP is supported on "all types" of interfaces, including physical, VLAN, port-channel,
and port extender interfaces.
VRRP specifies a MASTER router that owns the next hop IP and MAC address for end stations on a local area
network (LAN). The MASTER router is chosen from the virtual routers by an election process and forwards
packets sent to the next hop IP address. If the MASTER router fails, VRRP begins the election process to
choose a new MASTER router and that new MASTER continues routing traffic.
VRRP uses the virtual router identifier (VRID) to identify each virtual router configured. The IP address of the
MASTER router is used as the next hop address for all end stations on the LAN. The other routers the IP
addresses represent are BACKUP routers.
VRRP packets are transmitted with the virtual router MAC address as the source MAC address. The MAC
address is in the following format: 00-00-5E-00-01-{VRID}. The first three octets are unchangeable. The next
two octets (00-01) indicate the address block assigned to the VRRP protocol, and are unchangeable. The final
octet changes depending on the VRRP virtual router identifier and allows for up to 255 VRRP routers on a
network.
The following example shows a typical network configuration using VRRP. Instead of configuring the hosts on
the network 10.10.10.0 with the IP address of either Router A or Router B as their default router; their default
router is the IP address configured on the virtual router. When any host on the LAN segment wants to access
the Internet, it sends packets to the IP address of the virtual router.
In the following example, Router A is configured as the MASTER router. It is configured with the IP address of
the virtual router and sends any packets addressed to the virtual router through interface TenGigabitEthernet
1/1 to the Internet. As the BACKUP router, Router B is also configured with the IP address of the virtual router.
If, for any reason, Router A becomes unavailable, VRRP elects a new MASTER Router. Router B assumes the
duties of Router A and becomes the MASTER router. At that time, Router B responds to the packets sent to
the virtual IP address.
All workstations continue to use the IP address of the virtual router to address packets destined to the
Internet. Router B receives and forwards them on interface TenGigabitEthernet 10/1. Until Router A resumes
operation, VRRP allows Router B to provide uninterrupted service to the users on the LAN segment accessing
the Internet.

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