HSRP or VRRP

[k.fleischhauer]

In which environment are the above mentioned protocols better to practise. Where are the benefits of the HSRP ? Are there benefits?

[ajoseph]

The predominant benefit of using VRRP is in the case of interoperability with FW software that supports VRRP. Most noteably - CheckPoint FWOne.

There may also be benefits if you are trying to perform Router redundancy across ELANs. If you're strictly a Cisco Shop running IP, HSRP will work fine.

[kfee]

HSRP can track interfaces where VRRP can not. Interface tracking allows you to specify another interface on the router for the HSRP process to monitor in order to alter the HSRP priority for a given group.

If the specified interface's line protocol goes down, the HSRP priority is reduced, allowing another HSRP router with higher priority can become Active (if it has preemption enabled).

To configure HSRP interface tracking, use the standby [group] track interface [priority] command.

When multiple tracked interfaces are down, the priority is reduced by a cumulative amount. However, this isn't the case if you use the default priority values. If you explicitly set the decrement value, then the value is decreased by that amount if that interface is down, and decrements are cumulative. If you don't set an explicit decrement value, then the value is decreased only by 10 (the default value) no matter how many standby track statements you configure and how many interfaces are down.

Check this url for HSRP tech tips:

http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/619/index.shtml

[johansens]

This is true, but actually the ability to track other interfaces is very easy to implement in other VRRP-based applications as well. Nokia has a feature called "Monitored Circuit" just for this use (they as well as most others understand the importance of this).

It should be said that Cisco had the HSRP long before VRRP was accepted as a standard, and it's just fine and dandy.. :)

//Stig