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Cisco 350, 350X and 550X Series Managed Switches, Firmware Release 2.4, ver 0.4
346
IP Configuration: VRRP
NOTE
This feature is only supported in the 550 family of switches.
This chapter describes how Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) works and how to
configure virtual routers running VRRP through the WEB GUI.
It covers the following topics:
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Overview
VRRP is an election and redundancy protocol that dynamically assigns the responsibility of a
virtual router to one of the physical routers on a LAN. This increase the availability and
reliability of routing paths in the network.
In VRRP, one physical router in a virtual router is elected as the master, with the other physical
router of the same virtual router acting as backups in case the master fails. The physical routers
are referred as VRRP routers.
The default gateway of a participating host is assigned to the virtual router instead of a
physical router. If the physical router that is routing packets on behalf of the virtual router
fails, another physical router is selected to automatically replace it. The physical router that is
forwarding packets at any given time is called the master router.
VRRP also enables load sharing of traffic. Traffic can be shared equitably among available
routers by configuring VRRP in such a way that traffic to and from LAN clients are shared by
multiple routers.