Configuring Vrrp; Overview - HPE FlexFabric 5700 Series Configuration Manual

Configuring VRRP

The term "interface" in this chapter collectively refers to VLAN interfaces.
VRRP cannot be configured on member ports of aggregation groups.

Overview

Typically, you can configure a default gateway for every host on a LAN. All packets destined for other
networks are sent through the default gateway. As shown in
fails, no hosts can communicate with external networks.
Figure 29 LAN networking
Using a default gateway facilitates your configuration but requires high availability. Using more
egress gateways improves link availability but introduces the problem of routing among the
egresses.
Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) is designed to address this issue. VRRP adds a group
of network gateways to a VRRP group called a virtual router. A VRRP group comprises one master
and multiple backups, but has only one virtual IP address. The hosts on the subnet only need to
configure this virtual IP address as their default network gateway for communicating with external
networks.
The virtual IP address of the virtual router can be either an unused IP address on the subnet where
the VRRP group resides or the IP address of an interface on a router in the VRRP group. In the latter
case, the router is called the IP address owner. A VRRP group can have only one IP address owner.
VRRP avoids single points of failure and simplifies the configuration on hosts. When the master in
the VRRP group on a multicast or broadcast LAN (for example, an Ethernet network) fails, another
router in the VRRP group takes over. The switchover is complete without causing dynamic route
recalculation, route re-discovery, gateway reconfiguration on the hosts, or traffic interruption.
VRRP operates in either of the following modes:
•
Standard mode—Implemented based on RFCs. For more information, see
mode."
•
Load balancing mode—Extends the VRRP standard mode to distribute load across VRRP
group members. For more information, see
Figure
"VRRP load balancing
117
29, when the default gateway
"VRRP standard
mode."