VRRP
Anybody using a PC for Internet surfing, music downloads, gaming, or video downloads will use IP as the network protocol. The PC will have an IP address assigned, as well as a default gateway address to reach any destinations that are not on the local subnet.
If the default gateway is a single device and that device fails, the PC won’t be able to reach destinations outside the local subnet. In other words, the infamous “the Internet is down” support call will occur. In a fault-tolerant network, it would be ideal to have a backup gateway device, without having to modify the configuration on any PCs, as well as being able to load-share with multiple PCs on the LAN.
Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol was created to eliminate single points of behavior that are inherent to static default routed networks. VRRP creates a logical grouping of multiple physical routers to a “virtual” router that will be used as the default gateway for end hosts. In modern networks, this device could physically be a router or any other device that supports VRRP, such as an EX Series switch. Regardless, VRRP allows the PC to always maintain the same gateway address even if the physical gateway has changed (Figure 11-3). The “routers” that are part of the same VRRP logical group will share this “virtual” IP address, as well as sharing a “virtual” Media Access Control (MAC) address. Essentially, VRRP describes an election protocol in order to maintain ownership of this virtual IP address and MAC address. One ...
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