Table of Contents Link to heading

• VRRP vs HSRP: Why VRRP Exists
• VRRP Fundamentals
• VRRP Roles and Master Election
• Owner Router: A VRRP-Specific Concept
• Pre-emption
• VRRPv3: IPv4 and IPv6 Support
• Configuration
  • Basic VRRPv2 Configuration
  • VRRPv3 Configuration (IPv4 and IPv6)
  • Load Sharing with Multiple VRRP Groups
  • Interface Tracking
  • Verification
• VRRP vs HSRP: Key Differences

VRRP vs HSRP: Why VRRP Exists Link to heading

HSRP is Cisco-proprietary — it works only between Cisco devices. In multi-vendor environments (Cisco + Juniper, Cisco + Arista, or any combination), HSRP cannot be used. VRRP (Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol) is the IETF open standard (RFC 3768 for VRRPv2, RFC 5798 for VRRPv3) that provides the same gateway redundancy function across any vendor platform that implements it.

Functionally, VRRP and HSRP serve the same purpose. The differences are in protocol mechanics, terminology, and version capabilities.

VRRP Fundamentals Link to heading

Key protocol parameters:

VRRP Roles and Master Election Link to heading

Election process:

1. Routers exchange VRRP advertisements containing their priority values
2. The router with the highest priority becomes Master
3. If priorities are equal, the router with the highest IP address wins
4. Default priority is 100 for all routers except the IP address owner (see below)

Owner Router: A VRRP-Specific Concept Link to heading

VRRP has a concept that HSRP does not: the owner router. If a router’s real interface IP address matches the VRRP virtual IP, that router is the VIP owner and automatically gets priority 255 — the maximum possible. It will always be Master when it is operational, regardless of other routers’ priorities.

This allows a natural configuration where the primary gateway uses its own IP as the virtual IP:

interface GigabitEthernet0/1
 ip address 10.10.10.1 255.255.255.0
 vrrp 1 ip 10.10.10.1    ! Same as interface IP → this router is the owner, priority=255

Pre-emption Link to heading

VRRP pre-emption is enabled by default — the opposite of HSRP. When a higher-priority router comes back online, it will immediately send a VRRP advertisement with a higher priority, triggering the current Master to yield.

! Disable pre-emption if needed
vrrp 1 preempt disable

! Or set a pre-emption delay to allow routing convergence first
vrrp 1 preempt delay minimum 60

The delay is important in production: without it, a router that just completed a reload may take the Master role before its IGP has converged, briefly black-holing traffic despite being the “better” router.

VRRPv3: IPv4 and IPv6 Support Link to heading

VRRPv3 (RFC 5798) extends VRRP to support both IPv4 and IPv6 in the same framework and improves timer granularity to centiseconds (allowing sub-second failover without BFD).

Configuration Link to heading

Basic VRRPv2 Configuration Link to heading

interface GigabitEthernet0/1
 ip address 10.10.10.2 255.255.255.0
 vrrp 1 ip 10.10.10.1
 vrrp 1 priority 110
 vrrp 1 preempt delay minimum 60
 vrrp 1 timers advertise 1
 vrrp 1 authentication md5 key-string VrrpKey123

VRRPv3 Configuration (IPv4 and IPv6) Link to heading

! Enable VRRPv3 globally
fhrp version vrrp v3

interface GigabitEthernet0/1
 ip address 10.10.10.2 255.255.255.0
 ipv6 address 2001:db8:1::2/64

 ! IPv4 group
 vrrp 1 address-family ipv4
  address 10.10.10.1
  priority 110
  preempt delay minimum 60

 ! IPv6 group
 vrrp 2 address-family ipv6
  address 2001:db8:1::1
  priority 110
  preempt delay minimum 60

Load Sharing with Multiple VRRP Groups Link to heading

Like HSRP, VRRP load sharing requires multiple groups with different Masters:

interface GigabitEthernet0/1
 ip address 10.10.10.2 255.255.255.0
 vrrp 1 ip 10.10.10.1
 vrrp 1 priority 120
 vrrp 1 preempt
 vrrp 2 ip 10.10.10.254
 vrrp 2 priority 90

interface GigabitEthernet0/1
 ip address 10.10.10.3 255.255.255.0
 vrrp 1 ip 10.10.10.1
 vrrp 1 priority 90
 vrrp 2 ip 10.10.10.254
 vrrp 2 priority 120
 vrrp 2 preempt

Interface Tracking Link to heading

VRRP can track an object (interface state, IP route reachability) and decrement priority when the tracked object goes down, triggering failover even when the VRRP interface itself remains up:

! Track the WAN uplink
track 1 interface GigabitEthernet0/0 line-protocol

interface GigabitEthernet0/1
 vrrp 1 ip 10.10.10.1
 vrrp 1 priority 120
 vrrp 1 preempt
 vrrp 1 track 1 decrement 30

If GigabitEthernet0/0 goes down, priority drops from 120 to 90 — below the backup’s 100 — triggering a Master election.

Verification Link to heading

show vrrp
show vrrp brief
show vrrp interface GigabitEthernet0/1
show vrrp interface GigabitEthernet0/1 detail

show vrrp brief shows each group’s virtual IP, current state (Master/Backup), priority, and Master router IP — the equivalent of show standby brief for HSRP.

VRRP vs HSRP: Key Differences Link to heading