IP Addresses and Services Configuration Guide for Cisco 8000 Series Routers, IOS XR Releases

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IP Addresses and Services Configuration Guide for Cisco 8000 Series Routers, IOS XR Releases

VRRP

Updated: August 12, 2026

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This topic describes the Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP), which allows a group of routers to form a single virtual router and provides transparent failover at the first-hop IP router.

To implement VRRP on Cisco IOS XR software, you need to understand the following concepts:

  • Multiple virtual router support

  • VRRP router priority

  • VRRP advertisements

  • Benefits of VRRP

  • Hot restartability for VRRP

Table 1. Feature History Table

Feature Name

Release Information

Feature Description

Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol

Release 26.3.1

Introduced in this release on: Modular Systems (8800 [LC ASIC: K100])(select variants only*)

*This feature is supported on Cisco 88-LC1-48Y8F-EM line cards.

Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol

Release 25.4.1

Introduced in this release on: Fixed Systems (8700 [ASIC: K100], 8010 [ASIC: A100]) (select variants only*)

*This feature is supported on:

  • 8711-48Z-M

  • 8011-32Y8L2H2FH

  • 8011-12G12X4Y-A/D

Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol

Release 25.1.1

Introduced in this release on: Fixed Systems (8010 [ASIC: A100])

This feature is supported on:

  • 8011-4G24Y4H-I

Enabling Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol over BVI

Release 25.1.1

Introduced in this release on: Modular Systems (8800 [LC ASIC: P100]) (select variants only*)

You can now enable Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) over BVI on Cisco Silicon One P100 ASIC-based systems.

This feature, enabled by default, ensures continuous network availability by automatically switching to a standby router if the active router fails. This minimizes downtime and maintains network reliability.

*The feature is supported on:

  • 88-LC1-52Y8H-EM

  • 88-LC1-12TH24FH-E

Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol

Release 24.4.1

Introduced in this release on: Fixed Systems (8200 [ASIC: P100], 8700 [ASIC: P100, K100])(select variants only*); Modular Systems (8800 [LC ASIC: P100])(select variants only*)

You can now improve network reliability by enabling the Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) to automatically assign available IP routers to participating hosts, which enhances reliability. This improvement reduces downtime by allowing a backup router to take over if the primary router fails, ensuring continuous network availability. VRRP also supports load balancing, distributing traffic across multiple routers for better efficiency. It integrates seamlessly with existing network configurations, offering a streamlined setup process without compromising security or performance. This feature is especially beneficial for critical applications that require high availability.

*This feature is supported on:

  • 8212-48FH-M

  • 8711-32FH-M

  • 8712-MOD-M

  • 88-LC1-36EH

  • 88-LC1-12TH24FH-E

  • 88-LC1-52Y8H-EM

A LAN client can use a dynamic process or static configuration to determine which router should be the first hop to a particular remote destination. The client examples of dynamic router discovery are as follows:

  • Proxy ARP—The client uses Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) to get the destination it wants to reach, and a router responds to the ARP request with its own MAC address.

  • Routing protocol—The client listens to dynamic routing protocol updates (for example, from Routing Information Protocol [RIP]) and forms its own routing table.

  • IRDP (ICMP Router Discovery Protocol) client—The client runs an Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) router discovery client.

The drawback to dynamic discovery protocols is that they incur some configuration and processing overhead on the LAN client. Also, in the event of a router failure, the process of switching to another router can be slow.

An alternative to dynamic Cisco Discovery Protocols is to statically configure a default router on the client. This approach simplifies client configuration and processing, but creates a single point of failure. If the default gateway fails, the LAN client is limited to communicating only on the local IP network segment and is cut off from the rest of the network.

The Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) feature can solve the static configuration problem. VRRP is an IP routing redundancy protocol designed to allow for transparent failover at the first-hop IP router. VRRP enables a group of routers to form a single virtual router . The LAN clients can then be configured with the virtual router as their default gateway. The virtual router, representing a group of routers, is also known as a VRRP group .

When the virtual router group IP address is the same as the IP address of the physical interface of any router in the VRRP group, then such router becomes the IP address owner and the VRRP group operates in the Owner mode. When a VRRP group operates in Owner mode, the IP address owner is responsible for forwarding packets that are sent to the VRRP group.

For operating in Owner mode in case of IPv6 VRRP sessions, the link-local address that is configured for the VRRP session must be the same as the link-local address of the physical interface in a router. The link-local address can be autoconfigured by the router or can be an address that is configured by the administrator.

For example, the following topology shows a LAN in which VRRP is configured. In this example, Routers A, B, and C are VRRP routers (routers running VRRP) that compose a virtual router. The IP address of the virtual router is the same as that configured for the interface of Router A (10.0.0.1).

Figure 1. Basic VRRP topology
Basic VRRP Topology

Because the virtual router uses the IP address of the physical interface of Router A, Router A assumes the role of the IP address owner and is responsible for forwarding packets that are sent to the VRRP group IP address. Clients 1 through 3 are configured with the default gateway IP address of 10.0.0.1.

Routers B and C function as backup virtual routers . If the router that is IP address owner fails, the router that is configured with the higher priority becomes the IP address owner and provides uninterrupted service for the LAN hosts. When Router A recovers, it becomes the IP address owner again.

Note

We recommend that you disable Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) on switch ports to which the virtual routers are connected. Enable RSTP or rapid-PVST on the switch interfaces if the switch supports these protocols.

Restrictions for VRRP configuration

Consider these restrictions before you configure VRRP:

  • ICMP redirects are not supported.

  • Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) is not supported with VRRP.

  • Before Release 24.2.1, the Cisco 8000 Series Routers do not support the configuration of Virtual IP (VIP) addresses for VRRP on subinterfaces. As an alternative, Bridge-Group Virtual Interfaces (BVIs) can be utilized for VRRP implementation on subinterfaces.

  • Route Processor Fail Over (RPFO) is not supported for VRRP configuration on Cisco 8608 and Cisco 8404-SYS-D routers.

Multiple virtual router support

You can configure up to 255 virtual routers on a router interface. The actual number of virtual routers that a router interface can support depends on the following factors:

  • Router processing capability

  • Router memory capability

  • Router interface support of multiple MAC addresses

In a topology where multiple virtual routers are configured on a router interface, the interface can act as an IP address owner for one or more virtual routers and as a backup for one or more virtual routers.

VRRP router priority

An important aspect of the VRRP redundancy scheme is VRRP router priority. Priority determines the role that each VRRP router plays and what happens if the IP address owner virtual router fails.

If a VRRP router owns the IP address of the virtual router and the IP address of the physical interface, this router functions as an IP address owner virtual router.

If no VRRP router owns the IP address, the priority of a VRRP router, combined with the preempt settings, determines if a VRRP router functions as an IP address owner router or a backup virtual router. By default, the highest priority VRRP router functions as IP address owner router, and all the others function as backups. Priority also determines the order of ascendancy to becoming an IP address owner virtual router if the IP address owner virtual router fails. You can configure the priority of each backup virtual router with a value of 1 through 254, using the vrrp priority command.

For example, if Router A, the IP address owner virtual router in a LAN topology, fails, an election process takes place to determine if backup virtual Routers B or C should take over. If Routers B and C are configured with the priorities of 101 and 100, respectively, Router B is elected to become IP address owner virtual router because it has the higher priority. If Routers B and C are both configured with the priority of 100, the backup virtual router with the higher IP address is elected to become the IP address owner virtual router.

By default, a preemptive scheme is enabled whereby a higher-priority backup virtual router that becomes available takes over from the current IP address owner virtual router. You can disable this preemptive scheme using the vrrp preempt disable command. If preemption is disabled, the backup virtual router that is elected to become IP address owner router upon the failure of the original higher priority IP address owner router, remains the IP address owner router even if the original IP address owner virtual router recovers and becomes available again.

VRRP advertisements

The IP address owner virtual router sends VRRP advertisements to other VRRP routers in the same group. The advertisements communicate the priority and state of the IP address owner virtual router. The VRRP advertisements are encapsulated in IP packets and sent to the IP Version 4 multicast address assigned to the VRRP group. The advertisements are sent every second by default; the interval is configurable.

Benefits of VRRP

These are the benefits of VRRP:

  • Redundancy—VRRP enables you to configure multiple routers as the default gateway router, which reduces the possibility of a single point of failure in a network.

  • Load Sharing—You can configure VRRP in such a way that traffic to and from LAN clients can be shared by multiple routers, thereby sharing the traffic load more equitably among available routers.

  • Multiple Virtual Routers—VRRP supports up to 100 virtual routers (VRRP groups) on a router interface, subject to the platform supporting multiple MAC addresses. You can configure up to 256 virtual routers on a router interface. Multiple virtual router support enables you to implement redundancy and load sharing in your LAN topology.

  • Multiple IP Addresses—The virtual router can manage multiple IP addresses, including secondary IP addresses. Therefore, if you have multiple subnets configured on an Ethernet interface, you can configure VRRP on each subnet.

  • Preemption—The redundancy scheme of VRRP enables you to preempt a backup virtual router that has taken over for a failing IP address owner virtual router with a higher-priority backup virtual router that has become available.

  • Text Authentication—You can ensure that VRRP messages received from VRRP routers that comprise a virtual router are authenticated by configuring a simple text password.

  • Advertisement Protocol—VRRP uses a dedicated Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) standard multicast address (224.0.0.18) for VRRP advertisements. This addressing scheme minimizes the number of routers that must service the multicasts and allows test equipment to accurately identify VRRP packets on a segment. The IANA assigns VRRP the IP protocol number 112.

Hot restartability for VRRP

In the event of failure of a VRRP process in one group, forced failovers in peer VRRP IP address owner router groups should be prevented. Hot restartability supports warm RP failover without incurring forced failovers to peer VRRP routers.