Symmetrical VRRP

[p21]

Is it possible to configure VRRP to load balance.

[sadasiva1]

You can .

Eg:-

VRRP configuration with two routers by using two virtual routers. Routers R1 and R2 are both configured with two virtual routers(VRID=1 and VRID=2).

Router R1 serves as:

Master for VRID=1

Backup for VRID=2

Router R2 serves as:

Master for VRID=2

Backup for VRID=1

This type of configuration allows you to load-balance traffic coming from the hosts on the subnet and provides a redundant path to either virtual router.

[mheusinger]

Hi,

the above posted setup works, however, you need different default gateways for different hosts in the segment. Depending on the traffic from those hosts load sharing will be better or worse. The same scenario can be achieved with HSRP - two groups per VLAN.

Another option to look into is GLBP (gateway load balancing protocol). Here every client gets another (virtual) MAC from the available routers operating with the same default gateway IP. So load sharing is achieved by using the ARP replies to distribute clients to different gateways (so called AVF=active virtual forwarders).

Hope this helps! Please rate all posts.

Regards, Martin