VRRP Components
372 Router Configuration Guide
Primary and Secondary IP Addresses
A primary address is an IP address selected from the set of real interface address. VRRP
advertisements are always sent using the primary IP address as the source of the IP packet.
An IP interface must always have a primary IP address assigned for VRRP to be active on the
interface. Alcatel-Lucent routers supports both primary and secondary IP addresses (multi-
netting) on the IP interface. The virtual router’s VRID primary IP address is always the
primary address on the IP interface. VRRP uses the primary IP address as the IP address
placed in the source IP address field of the IP header for all VRRP messages sent on that
interface.
Virtual Router Master
The VRRP router which controls the IP address(es) associated with a virtual router is called
the master. The master is responsible for forwarding packets sent to the VRRP IP addresses.
An election process provides dynamic failover of the forwarding responsibility if the master
becomes unavailable. This allows any of the virtual router IP addresses on the LAN to be used
as the default first hop router by end hosts. This enables a higher availability default path
without requiring configuration of dynamic routing or router discovery protocols on every
end host.
If the master is unavailable, each backup virtual router for the VRID compare the configured
priority values to determine the master role. In case of a tie, the virtual router with the highest
primary IP address becomes master.
The preempt parameter can be set to false to prevent a backup virtual router with a better
priority value from becoming master when an existing non-owner virtual router is the current
master. This is determined on a first-come, first-served basis.
While master, a virtual router routes and originates all IP packets into the LAN using the
physical MAC address for the IP interface as the Layer 2 source MAC address, not the VRID
MAC address. ARP packets also use the parent IP interface MAC address as the Layer 2
source MAC address while inserting the virtual router MAC address in the appropriate
hardware address field. VRRP messages are the only packets transmitted using the virtual
router MAC address as the Layer 2 source MAC.
Virtual Router Backup
A new virtual router master is selected from the set of VRRP routers available to assume
forwarding responsibility for a virtual router should the current master fail.
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