Service 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.
VRRP species 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 trac.
VRRP uses the virtual router identier (VRID) to identify each virtual router congured. 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 rst three octets are unchangeable. The next two octets (00-01) indicate the address block
assigned to the VRRP protocol, and are unchangeable. The nal octet changes depending on the VRRP virtual router identier and
allows for up to 255 VRRP routers on a network.
The following example shows a typical network conguration using VRRP. Instead of conguring 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 congured 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 congured as the MASTER router. It is congured 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 congured 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.
For more detailed information about VRRP, refer to RFC 2338, Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol.
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Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP)