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IETF RFC 5798
Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) Version 3 for IPv4 and IPv6
Last modified on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) S. Nadas, Ed.
Request for Comments: 5798 Ericsson
Obsoletes: 3768 March 2010
Category: Standards Track
ISSN: 2070-1721
Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) Version 3 for IPv4 and IPv6
 Abstract
This memo defines the Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) for
IPv4 and IPv6. It is version three (3) of the protocol, and it is
based on VRRP (version 2) for IPv4 that is defined in RFC 3768 and in
"Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol for IPv6". VRRP specifies an
election protocol that dynamically assigns responsibility for a
virtual router to one of the VRRP routers on a LAN. The VRRP router
controlling the IPv4 or IPv6 address(es) associated with a virtual
router is called the Master, and it forwards packets sent to these
IPv4 or IPv6 addresses. VRRP Master routers are configured with
virtual IPv4 or IPv6 addresses, and VRRP Backup routers infer the
address family of the virtual addresses being carried based on the
transport protocol. Within a VRRP router, the virtual routers in
each of the IPv4 and IPv6 address families are a domain unto
themselves and do not overlap. The election process provides dynamic
failover in the forwarding responsibility should the Master become
unavailable. For IPv4, the advantage gained from using VRRP is a
higher-availability default path without requiring configuration of
dynamic routing or router discovery protocols on every end-host. For
IPv6, the advantage gained from using VRRP for IPv6 is a quicker
switchover to Backup routers than can be obtained with standard IPv6
Neighbor Discovery mechanisms.
Status of This Memo
This is an Internet Standards Track document.
This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has
received public review and has been approved for publication by the
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Further information on
Internet Standards is available in Section 2 of RFC 5741.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/RFC 5798.
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RFC 5798 VRRPv3 for IPv4 and IPv6 March 2010
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2010 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
(http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
publication of this document. Please review these documents
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include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
described in the Simplified BSD License.
This document may contain material from IETF Documents or IETF
Contributions published or made publicly available before November
10, 2008. The person(s) controlling the copyright in some of this
material may not have granted the IETF Trust the right to allow
modifications of such material outside the IETF Standards Process.
Without obtaining an adequate license from the person(s) controlling
the copyright in such materials, this document may not be modified
outside the IETF Standards Process, and derivative works of it may
not be created outside the IETF Standards Process, except to format
it for publication as an RFC or to translate it into languages other
than English.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ....................................................4
1.1. A Note on Terminology ......................................4
1.2. IPv4 .......................................................5
1.3. IPv6 .......................................................6
1.4. Requirements Language ......................................6
1.5. Scope ......................................................7
1.6. Definitions ................................................7
2. Required Features ...............................................8
2.1. IPvX Address Backup ........................................8
2.2. Preferred Path Indication ..................................8
2.3. Minimization of Unnecessary Service Disruptions ............9
2.4. Efficient Operation over Extended LANs .....................9
2.5. Sub-Second Operation for IPv4 and IPv6 .....................9
3. VRRP Overview ..................................................10
4. Sample Configurations ..........................................11
4.1. Sample Configuration 1 ....................................11
4.2. Sample Configuration 2 ....................................13
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RFC 5798 VRRPv3 for IPv4 and IPv6 March 2010
5. Protocol .......................................................14
5.1. VRRP Packet Format ........................................15
5.1.1. IPv4 Field Descriptions ............................15
5.1.1.1. Source Address ............................15
5.1.1.2. Destination Address .......................15
5.1.1.3. TTL .......................................16
5.1.1.4. Protocol ..................................16
5.1.2. IPv6 Field Descriptions ............................16
5.1.2.1. Source Address ............................16
5.1.2.2. Destination Address .......................16
5.1.2.3. Hop Limit .................................16
5.1.2.4. Next Header ...............................16
5.2. VRRP Field Descriptions ...................................16
5.2.1. Version ............................................16
5.2.2. Type ...............................................17
5.2.3. Virtual Rtr ID (VRID) ..............................17
5.2.4. Priority ...........................................17
5.2.5. Count IPvX Addr ....................................17
5.2.6. Rsvd ...............................................17
5.2.7. Maximum Advertisement Interval (Max Adver Int) .....17
5.2.8. Checksum ...........................................18
5.2.9. IPvX Address(es) ...................................18
6. Protocol State Machine .........................................18
6.1. Parameters Per Virtual Router .............................18
6.2. Timers ....................................................20
6.3. State Transition Diagram ..................................21
6.4. State Descriptions ........................................21
6.4.1. Initialize .........................................21
6.4.2. Backup .............................................22
6.4.3. Master .............................................24
7. Sending and Receiving VRRP Packets .............................26
7.1. Receiving VRRP Packets ....................................26
7.2. Transmitting VRRP Packets .................................27
7.3. Virtual Router MAC Address ................................28
7.4. IPv6 Interface Identifiers ................................28
8. Operational Issues .............................................29
8.1. IPv4 ......................................................29
8.1.1. ICMP Redirects .....................................29
8.1.2. Host ARP Requests ..................................29
8.1.3. Proxy ARP ..........................................30
8.2. IPv6 ......................................................30
8.2.1. ICMPv6 Redirects ...................................30
8.2.2. ND Neighbor Solicitation ...........................30
8.2.3. Router Advertisements ..............................31
8.3. IPvX ......................................................31
8.3.1. Potential Forwarding Loop ..........................31
8.3.2. Recommendations Regarding Setting Priority Values ..32
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RFC 5798 VRRPv3 for IPv4 and IPv6 March 2010
8.4. VRRPv3 and VRRPv2 Interoperation ..........................32
8.4.1. Assumptions ........................................32
8.4.2. VRRPv3 Support of VRRPv2 ...........................32
8.4.3. VRRPv3 Support of VRRPv2 Considerations ............33
8.4.3.1. Slow, High-Priority Masters ...............33
8.4.3.2. Overwhelming VRRPv2 Backups ...............33
9. Security Considerations ........................................33
10. Contributors and Acknowledgments ..............................34
11. IANA Considerations ...........................................35
12. References ....................................................35
12.1. Normative References .....................................35
12.2. Informative References ...................................36
Appendix A. Operation over FDDI, Token Ring, and ATM LANE .........38
A.1. Operation over FDDI .......................................38
A.2. Operation over Token Ring .................................38
A.3. Operation over ATM LANE ...................................40
1. Introduction
This memo defines the Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) for
IPv4 and IPv6. It is version three (3) of the protocol. It is based
on VRRP (version 2) for IPv4 that is defined in [RFC 3768] and in
[VRRP-IPv6]. VRRP specifies an election protocol that dynamically
assigns responsibility for a virtual router to one of the VRRP
routers on a LAN. The VRRP router controlling the IPv4 or IPv6
address(es) associated with a virtual router is called the Master,
and it forwards packets sent to these IPv4 or IPv6 addresses. VRRP
Master routers are configured with virtual IPv4 or IPv6 addresses,
and VRRP Backup routers infer the address family of the virtual
addresses being carried based on the transport protocol. Within a
VRRP router, the virtual routers in each of the IPv4 and IPv6 address
families are a domain unto themselves and do not overlap. The
election process provides dynamic failover in the forwarding
responsibility should the Master become unavailable.
VRRP provides a function similar to the proprietary protocols "Hot
Standby Router Protocol (HSRP)" [RFC 2281] and "IP Standby Protocol"
[IPSTB].
1.1. A Note on Terminology
This document discusses both IPv4 and IPv6 operation, and with
respect to the VRRP protocol, many of the descriptions and procedures
are common. In this document, it would be less verbose to be able to
refer to "IP" to mean either "IPv4 or IPv6". However, historically,
the term "IP" usually refers to IPv4. For this reason, in this
specification, the term "IPvX" (where X is 4 or 6) is introduced to
mean either "IPv4" or "IPv6". In this text, where the IP version
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RFC 5798 VRRPv3 for IPv4 and IPv6 March 2010
matters, the appropriate term is used and the use of the term "IP" is
avoided.
1.2. IPv4
There are a number of methods that an IPv4 end-host can use to
determine its first-hop router towards a particular IPv4 destination.
These include running (or snooping) a dynamic routing protocol such
as Routing Information Protocol [RFC 2453] or OSPF version 2
[RFC 2328], running an ICMP router discovery client [RFC 1256], or
using a statically configured default route.
Running a dynamic routing protocol on every end-host may be
infeasible for a number of reasons, including administrative
overhead, processing overhead, security issues, or lack of a protocol
implementation for some platforms. Neighbor or router discovery
protocols may require active participation by all hosts on a network,
leading to large timer values to reduce protocol overhead in the face
of large numbers of hosts. This can result in a significant delay in
the detection of a lost (i.e., dead) neighbor; such a delay may
introduce unacceptably long "black hole" periods.
The use of a statically configured default route is quite popular; it
minimizes configuration and processing overhead on the end-host and
is supported by virtually every IPv4 implementation. This mode of
operation is likely to persist as dynamic host configuration
protocols [RFC 2131] are deployed, which typically provide
configuration for an end-host IPv4 address and default gateway.
However, this creates a single point of failure. Loss of the default
router results in a catastrophic event, isolating all end-hosts that
are unable to detect any alternate path that may be available.
The Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) is designed to
eliminate the single point of failure inherent in the static default-
routed environment. VRRP specifies an election protocol that
dynamically assigns responsibility for a virtual router to one of the
VRRP routers on a LAN. The VRRP router controlling the IPv4
address(es) associated with a virtual router is called the Master and
forwards packets sent to these IPv4 addresses. The election process
provides dynamic failover in the forwarding responsibility should the
Master become unavailable. Any of the virtual router's IPv4
addresses on a LAN can then be used as the default first hop
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RFC 5798 VRRPv3 for IPv4 and IPv6 March 2010
router by end-hosts. The advantage gained from using VRRP is a
higher availability default path without requiring configuration of
dynamic routing or router discovery protocols on every end-host.
1.3. IPv6
IPv6 hosts on a LAN will usually learn about one or more default
routers by receiving Router Advertisements sent using the IPv6
Neighbor Discovery (ND) protocol [RFC 4861]. The Router
Advertisements are multicast periodically at a rate that the hosts
will learn about the default routers in a few minutes. They are not
sent frequently enough to rely on the absence of the Router
Advertisement to detect router failures.
Neighbor Discovery (ND) includes a mechanism called Neighbor
Unreachability Detection to detect the failure of a neighbor node
(router or host) or the forwarding path to a neighbor. This is done
by sending unicast ND Neighbor Solicitation messages to the neighbor
node. To reduce the overhead of sending Neighbor Solicitations, they
are only sent to neighbors to which the node is actively sending
traffic and only after there has been no positive indication that the
router is up for a period of time. Using the default parameters in
ND, it will take a host about 38 seconds to learn that a router is
unreachable before it will switch to another default router. This
delay would be very noticeable to users and cause some transport
protocol implementations to time out.
While the ND unreachability detection could be made quicker by
changing the parameters to be more aggressive (note that the current
lower limit for this is 5 seconds), this would have the downside of
significantly increasing the overhead of ND traffic, especially when
there are many hosts all trying to determine the reachability of one
of more routers.
The Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol for IPv6 provides a much
faster switchover to an alternate default router than can be obtained
using standard ND procedures. Using VRRP, a Backup router can take
over for a failed default router in around three seconds (using VRRP
default parameters). This is done without any interaction with the
hosts and a minimum amount of VRRP traffic.
1.4. Requirements Language
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC 2119].
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RFC 5798 VRRPv3 for IPv4 and IPv6 March 2010
1.5. Scope
The remainder of this document describes the features, design goals,
and theory of operation of VRRP. The message formats, protocol
processing rules, and state machine that guarantee convergence to a
single Virtual Router Master are presented. Finally, operational
issues related to MAC address mapping, handling of ARP requests,
generation of ICMP redirect messages, and security issues are
addressed.
1.6. Definitions
VRRP Router A router running the Virtual Router
Redundancy Protocol. It may participate as
one or more virtual routers.
Virtual Router An abstract object managed by VRRP that acts
as a default router for hosts on a shared
LAN. It consists of a Virtual Router
Identifier and either a set of associated
IPv4 addresses or a set of associated IPv6
addresses across a common LAN. A VRRP Router
may back up one or more virtual routers.
IP Address Owner The VRRP router that has the virtual router's
IPvX address(es) as real interface
address(es). This is the router that, when
up, will respond to packets addressed to one
of these IPvX addresses for ICMP pings, TCP
connections, etc.
Primary IP Address In IPv4, an IPv4 address selected from the
set of real interface addresses. One
possible selection algorithm is to always
select the first address. In IPv4 mode, VRRP
advertisements are always sent using the
primary IPv4 address as the source of the
IPv4 packet. In IPv6, the link-local address
of the interface over which the packet is
transmitted is used.
Virtual Router Master The VRRP router that is assuming the
responsibility of forwarding packets sent to
the IPvX address(es) associated with the
virtual router, answering ARP requests
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RFC 5798 VRRPv3 for IPv4 and IPv6 March 2010
for the IPv4 address(es), and answering ND
requests for the IPv6 address(es). Note that
if the IPvX address owner is available, then
it will always become the Master.
Virtual Router Backup The set of VRRP routers available to assume
forwarding responsibility for a virtual
router should the current Master fail.
2. Required Features
This section outlines the set of features that were considered
mandatory and that guided the design of VRRP.
2.1. IPvX Address Backup
Backup of an IPvX address or addresses is the primary function of
VRRP. While providing election of a Virtual Router Master and the
additional functionality described below, the protocol should
strive to:
o Minimize the duration of black holes.
o Minimize the steady-state bandwidth overhead and processing
complexity.
o Function over a wide variety of multiaccess LAN technologies
capable of supporting IPvX traffic.
o Allow multiple virtual routers on a network for load balancing.
o Support multiple logical IPvX subnets on a single LAN segment.
2.2. Preferred Path Indication
A simple model of Master election among a set of redundant routers is
to treat each router with equal preference and claim victory after
converging to any router as Master. However, there are likely to be
many environments where there is a distinct preference (or range of
preferences) among the set of redundant routers. For example, this
preference may be based upon access link cost or speed, router
performance or reliability, or other policy considerations. The
protocol should allow the expression of this relative path preference
in an intuitive manner and guarantee Master convergence to the most
preferential router currently available.
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RFC 5798 VRRPv3 for IPv4 and IPv6 March 2010
2.3. Minimization of Unnecessary Service Disruptions
Once Master election has been performed, any unnecessary transitions
between Master and Backup routers can result in a disruption in
service. The protocol should ensure after Master election that no
state transition is triggered by any Backup router of equal or lower
preference as long as the Master continues to function properly.
Some environments may find it beneficial to avoid the state
transition triggered when a router that is preferred over the current
Master becomes available. It may be useful to support an override of
the immediate convergence to the preferred path.
2.4. Efficient Operation over Extended LANs
Sending IPvX packets (that is, sending either IPv4 or IPv6) on a
multiaccess LAN requires mapping from an IPvX address to a MAC
address. The use of the virtual router MAC address in an extended
LAN employing learning bridges can have a significant effect on the
bandwidth overhead of packets sent to the virtual router. If the
virtual router MAC address is never used as the source address in a
link-level frame, then the station location is never learned,
resulting in flooding of all packets sent to the virtual router. To
improve the efficiency in this environment, the protocol should:
1) use the virtual router MAC address as the source in a packet sent
by the Master to trigger station learning; 2) trigger a message
immediately after transitioning to the Master to update the station
learning; and 3) trigger periodic messages from the Master to
maintain the station learning cache.
2.5. Sub-Second Operation for IPv4 and IPv6
Sub-second detection of Master VRRP router failure is needed in both
IPv4 and IPv6 environments. Earlier work proposed that sub-second
operation was for IPv6; this specification leverages that earlier
approach for IPv4 and IPv6.
One possible problematic scenario when using small
VRRP_Advertisement_Intervals may occur when a router is delivering
more packets onto the LAN than can be accommodated, and so a queue
builds up in the router. It is possible that packets being
transmitted onto the VRRP-protected LAN could see larger queueing
delay than the smallest VRRP Advertisement_Interval. In this case,
the Master_Down_Interval will be small enough so that normal queuing
delays might cause a VRRP Backup to conclude that the Master is down,
and therefore promote itself to Master. Very shortly afterwards, the
delayed VRRP packets from the Master cause a switch back to Backup
status. Furthermore, this process can repeat many times per second,
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RFC 5798 VRRPv3 for IPv4 and IPv6 March 2010
causing significant disruption to traffic. To mitigate this problem,
priority forwarding of VRRP packets should be considered. It should
be possible for a VRRP Master to observe that this situation is
occurring frequently and at least log the problem.
3. VRRP Overview
VRRP specifies an election protocol to provide the virtual router
function described earlier. All protocol messaging is performed
using either IPv4 or IPv6 multicast datagrams; thus, the protocol can
operate over a variety of multiaccess LAN technologies supporting
IPvX multicast. Each link of a VRRP virtual router has a single
well-known MAC address allocated to it. This document currently only
details the mapping to networks using the IEEE 802 48-bit MAC
address. The virtual router MAC address is used as the source in all
periodic VRRP messages sent by the Master router to enable bridge
learning in an extended LAN.
A virtual router is defined by its virtual router identifier (VRID)
and a set of either IPv4 or IPv6 address(es). A VRRP router may
associate a virtual router with its real address on an interface.
The scope of each virtual router is restricted to a single LAN. A
VRRP router may be configured with additional virtual router mappings
and priority for virtual routers it is willing to back up. The
mapping between the VRID and its IPvX address(es) must be coordinated
among all VRRP routers on a LAN.
There is no restriction against reusing a VRID with a different
address mapping on different LANs, nor is there a restriction against
using the same VRID number for a set of IPv4 addresses and a set of
IPv6 addresses; however, these are two different virtual routers.
To minimize network traffic, only the Master for each virtual router
sends periodic VRRP Advertisement messages. A Backup router will not
attempt to preempt the Master unless it has higher priority. This
eliminates service disruption unless a more preferred path becomes
available. It's also possible to administratively prohibit all
preemption attempts. The only exception is that a VRRP router will
always become Master of any virtual router associated with addresses
it owns. If the Master becomes unavailable, then the highest-
priority Backup will transition to Master after a short delay,
providing a controlled transition of the virtual router
responsibility with minimal service interruption.
The VRRP protocol design provides rapid transition from Backup to
Master to minimize service interruption and incorporates
optimizations that reduce protocol complexity while guaranteeing
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RFC 5798 VRRPv3 for IPv4 and IPv6 March 2010
controlled Master transition for typical operational scenarios. The
optimizations result in an election protocol with minimal runtime
state requirements, minimal active protocol states, and a single
message type and sender. The typical operational scenarios are
defined to be two redundant routers and/or distinct path preferences
among each router. A side effect when these assumptions are violated
(i.e., more than two redundant paths, all with equal preference) is
that duplicate packets may be forwarded for a brief period during
Master election. However, the typical scenario assumptions are
likely to cover the vast majority of deployments, loss of the Master
router is infrequent, and the expected duration in Master election
convergence is quite small ( << 1 second ). Thus, the VRRP
optimizations represent significant simplifications in the protocol
design while incurring an insignificant probability of brief network
degradation.
4. Sample Configurations
4.1. Sample Configuration 1
The following figure shows a simple network with two VRRP routers
implementing one virtual router.
+-----------+ +-----------+
| Rtr1 | | Rtr2 |
|(MR VRID=1)| |(BR VRID=1)|
| | | |
VRID=1 +-----------+ +-----------+
IPvX A--------->* *<---------IPvX B
| |
| |
----------------+------------+-----+----------+----------+----------+--
^ ^ ^ ^
| | | |
default rtr IPvX addrs-------> (IPvX A) (IPvX A) (IPvX A) (IPvX A)
| | | |
IPvX H1->* IpvX H2->* IPvX H3->* IpvX H4->*
+--+--+ +--+--+ +--+--+ +--+--+
| H1 | | H2 | | H3 | | H4 |
+-----+ +-----+ +--+--+ +--+--+
Legend:
--+---+---+-- = Ethernet, Token Ring, or FDDI
H = Host computer
MR = Master Router
BR = Backup Router
* = IPvX Address; X is 4 everywhere in IPv4 case
X is 6 everywhere in IPv6 case
(IPvX) = default router for hosts
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RFC 5798 VRRPv3 for IPv4 and IPv6 March 2010
Eliminating all mention of VRRP (VRID=1) from the figure above leaves
it as a typical deployment.
In the IPv4 case (that is, IPvX is IPv4 everywhere in the figure),
each router is permanently assigned an IPv4 address on the LAN
interface (Rtr1 is assigned IPv4 A and Rtr2 is assigned IPv4 B), and
each host installs a static default route through one of the routers
(in this example they all use Rtr1's IPv4 A).
In the IPv6 case (that is, IPvX is IPv6 everywhere in the figure),
each router has a link-local IPv6 address on the LAN interface (Rtr1
is assigned IPv6 Link-Local A and Rtr2 is assigned IPv6 Link-
Local B), and each host learns a default route from Router
Advertisements through one of the routers (in this example, they all
use Rtr1's IPv6 Link-Local A).
Moving to an IPv4 VRRP environment, each router has the exact same
permanently assigned IPv4 address. Rtr1 is said to be the IPv4
address owner of IPv4 A, and Rtr2 is the IPv4 address owner of
IPv4 B. A virtual router is then defined by associating a unique
identifier (the virtual router ID) with the address owned by a
router.
Moving to an IPv6 VRRP environment, each router has the exact same
Link-Local IPv6 address. Rtr1 is said to be the IPv6 address owner
of IPv6 A, and Rtr2 is the IPv6 address owner of IPv6 B. A virtual
router is then defined by associating a unique identifier (the
virtual router ID) with the address owned by a router.
Finally, in both the IPv4 and IPv6 cases, the VRRP protocol manages
virtual router failover to a Backup router.
The IPv4 example above shows a virtual router configured to cover the
IPv4 address owned by Rtr1 (VRID=1, IPv4_Address=A). When VRRP is
enabled on Rtr1 for VRID=1, it will assert itself as Master, with
priority = 255, since it is the IP address owner for the virtual
router IP address. When VRRP is enabled on Rtr2 for VRID=1, it will
transition to Backup, with priority = 100 (the default priority is
100), since it is not the IPv4 address owner. If Rtr1 should fail,
then the VRRP protocol will transition Rtr2 to Master, temporarily
taking over forwarding responsibility for IPv4 A to provide
uninterrupted service to the hosts. When Rtr1 returns to service, it
will re-assert itself as Master.
The IPv6 example above shows a virtual router configured to cover the
IPv6 address owned by Rtr1 (VRID=1, IPv6_Address=A). When VRRP is
enabled on Rtr1 for VRID=1, it will assert itself as Master, with
priority = 255, since it is the IPv6 address owner for the virtual
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RFC 5798 VRRPv3 for IPv4 and IPv6 March 2010
router IPv6 address. When VRRP is enabled on Rtr2 for VRID=1, it
will transition to Backup, with priority = 100 (the default priority
is 100), since it is not the IPv6 address owner. If Rtr1 should
fail, then the VRRP protocol will transition Rtr2 to Master,
temporarily taking over forwarding responsibility for IPv6 A to
provide uninterrupted service to the hosts.
Note that in both cases, in this example IPvX B is not backed up; it
is only used by Rtr2 as its interface address. In order to back up
IPvX B, a second virtual router must be configured. This is shown in
the next section.
4.2. Sample Configuration 2
The following figure shows a configuration with two virtual routers
with the hosts splitting their traffic between them.
+-----------+ +-----------+
| Rtr1 | | Rtr2 |
|(MR VRID=1)| |(BR VRID=1)|
|(BR VRID=2)| |(MR VRID=2)|
VRID=1 +-----------+ +-----------+ VRID=2
IPvX A -------->* *<---------- IPvX B
| |
| |
----------------+------------+-----+----------+----------+----------+--
^ ^ ^ ^
| | | |
default rtr IPvX addrs -----> (IPvX A) (IPvX A) (IPvX B) (IPvX B)
| | | |
IPvX H1->* IpvX H2->* IPvX H3->* IpvX H4->*
+--+--+ +--+--+ +--+--+ +--+--+
| H1 | | H2 | | H3 | | H4 |
+-----+ +-----+ +--+--+ +--+--+
Legend:
---+---+---+-- = Ethernet, Token Ring, or FDDI
H = Host computer
MR = Master Router
BR = Backup Router
* = IPvX Address; X is 4 everywhere in IPv4 case
X is 6 everywhere in IPv6 case
(IPvX) = default router for hosts
In the IPv4 example above (that is, IPvX is IPv4 everywhere in the
figure), half of the hosts have configured a static route through
Rtr1's IPv4 A, and half are using Rtr2's IPv4 B. The configuration
of virtual router VRID=1 is exactly the same as in the first example
(see Section 4.1), and a second virtual router has been added to
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RFC 5798 VRRPv3 for IPv4 and IPv6 March 2010
cover the IPv4 address owned by Rtr2 (VRID=2, IPv4_Address=B). In
this case, Rtr2 will assert itself as Master for VRID=2 while Rtr1
will act as a Backup. This scenario demonstrates a deployment
providing load splitting when both routers are available, while
providing full redundancy for robustness.
In the IPv6 example above (that is, IPvX is IPv6 everywhere in the
figure), half of the hosts have learned a default route through
Rtr1's IPv6 A, and half are using Rtr2's IPv6 B. The configuration
of virtual router VRID=1 is exactly the same as in the first example
(see Section 4.1), and a second virtual router has been added to
cover the IPv6 address owned by Rtr2 (VRID=2, IPv6_Address=B). In
this case, Rtr2 will assert itself as Master for VRID=2 while Rtr1
will act as a Backup. This scenario demonstrates a deployment
providing load splitting when both routers are available, while
providing full redundancy for robustness.
Note that the details of load balancing are out of scope of this
document. However, in a case where the servers need different
weights, it may not make sense to rely on router advertisements alone
to balance the host load between the routers.
5. Protocol
The purpose of the VRRP packet is to communicate to all VRRP routers
the priority and the state of the Master router associated with the
VRID.
When VRRP is protecting an IPv4 address, VRRP packets are sent
encapsulated in IPv4 packets. They are sent to the IPv4 multicast
address assigned to VRRP.
When VRRP is protecting an IPv6 address, VRRP packets are sent
encapsulated in IPv6 packets. They are sent to the IPv6 multicast
address assigned to VRRP.
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5.1. VRRP Packet Format
This section defines the format of the VRRP packet and the relevant
fields in the IP header.
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| IPv4 Fields or IPv6 Fields |
... ...
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|Version| Type | Virtual Rtr ID| Priority |Count IPvX Addr|
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|(rsvd) | Max Adver Int | Checksum |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
+ +
| IPvX Address(es) |
+ +
+ +
+ +
+ +
| |
+ +
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
5.1.1. IPv4 Field Descriptions
5.1.1.1. Source Address
This is the primary IPv4 address of the interface the packet is being
sent from.
5.1.1.2. Destination Address
The IPv4 multicast address as assigned by the IANA for VRRP is:
224.0.0.18
This is a link-local scope multicast address. Routers MUST NOT
forward a datagram with this destination address, regardless of its
TTL.
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5.1.1.3. TTL
The TTL MUST be set to 255. A VRRP router receiving a packet with
the TTL not equal to 255 MUST discard the packet.
5.1.1.4. Protocol
The IPv4 protocol number assigned by the IANA for VRRP is 112
(decimal).
5.1.2. IPv6 Field Descriptions
5.1.2.1. Source Address
This is the IPv6 link-local address of the interface the packet is
being sent from.
5.1.2.2. Destination Address
The IPv6 multicast address assigned by the IANA for VRRP is:
FF02:0:0:0:0:0:0:12
This is a link-local scope multicast address. Routers MUST NOT
forward a datagram with this destination address, regardless of its
Hop Limit.
5.1.2.3. Hop Limit
The Hop Limit MUST be set to 255. A VRRP router receiving a packet
with the Hop Limit not equal to 255 MUST discard the packet.
5.1.2.4. Next Header
The IPv6 Next Header protocol assigned by the IANA for VRRP is 112
(decimal).
5.2. VRRP Field Descriptions
5.2.1. Version
The version field specifies the VRRP protocol version of this packet.
This document defines version 3.
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5.2.2. Type
The type field specifies the type of this VRRP packet. The only
packet type defined in this version of the protocol is:
1 ADVERTISEMENT
A packet with unknown type MUST be discarded.
5.2.3. Virtual Rtr ID (VRID)
The Virtual Rtr ID field identifies the virtual router this packet is
reporting status for.
5.2.4. Priority
The priority field specifies the sending VRRP router's priority for
the virtual router. Higher values equal higher priority. This field
is an 8-bit unsigned integer field.
The priority value for the VRRP router that owns the IPvX address
associated with the virtual router MUST be 255 (decimal).
VRRP routers backing up a virtual router MUST use priority values
between 1-254 (decimal). The default priority value for VRRP routers
backing up a virtual router is 100 (decimal).
The priority value zero (0) has special meaning, indicating that the
current Master has stopped participating in VRRP. This is used to
trigger Backup routers to quickly transition to Master without having
to wait for the current Master to time out.
5.2.5. Count IPvX Addr
This is the number of either IPv4 addresses or IPv6 addresses
contained in this VRRP advertisement. The minimum value is 1.
5.2.6. Rsvd
This field MUST be set to zero on transmission and ignored on
reception.
5.2.7. Maximum Advertisement Interval (Max Adver Int)
The Maximum Advertisement Interval is a 12-bit field that indicates
the time interval (in centiseconds) between ADVERTISEMENTS. The
default is 100 centiseconds (1 second).
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Note that higher-priority Master routers with slower transmission
rates than their Backup routers are unstable. This is because low-
priority nodes configured to faster rates could come online and
decide they should be Masters before they have heard anything from
the higher-priority Master with a slower rate. When this happens, it
is temporary: once the lower-priority node does hear from the higher-
priority Master, it will relinquish mastership.
5.2.8. Checksum
The checksum field is used to detect data corruption in the VRRP
message.
The checksum is the 16-bit one's complement of the one's complement
sum of the entire VRRP message starting with the version field and a
"pseudo-header" as defined in Section 8.1 of [RFC 2460]. The next
header field in the "pseudo-header" should be set to 112 (decimal)
for VRRP. For computing the checksum, the checksum field is set to
zero. See RFC 1071 for more detail [RFC 1071].
5.2.9. IPvX Address(es)
This refers to one or more IPvX addresses associated with the virtual
router. The number of addresses included is specified in the "Count
IP Addr" field. These fields are used for troubleshooting
misconfigured routers. If more than one address is sent, it is
recommended that all routers be configured to send these addresses in
the same order to make it easier to do this comparison.
For IPv4 addresses, this refers to one or more IPv4 addresses that
are backed up by the virtual router.
For IPv6, the first address must be the IPv6 link-local address
associated with the virtual router.
This field contains either one or more IPv4 addresses, or one or more
IPv6 addresses, that is, IPv4 and IPv6 MUST NOT both be carried in
one IPvX Address field.
6. Protocol State Machine
6.1. Parameters Per Virtual Router
VRID Virtual Router Identifier. Configurable
item in the range 1-255 (decimal). There
is no default.
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Priority Priority value to be used by this VRRP
router in Master election for this
virtual router. The value of 255
(decimal) is reserved for the router that
owns the IPvX address associated with the
virtual router. The value of 0 (zero) is
reserved for the Master router to
indicate it is releasing responsibility
for the virtual router. The range 1-254
(decimal) is available for VRRP routers
backing up the virtual router. Higher
values indicate higher priorities. The
default value is 100 (decimal).
IPv4_Addresses One or more IPv4 addresses associated
with this virtual router. Configured
item with no default.
IPv6_Addresses One or more IPv6 addresses associated
with this virtual router. Configured
item with no default. The first address
must be the Link-Local address associated
with the virtual router.
Advertisement_Interval Time interval between ADVERTISEMENTS
(centiseconds). Default is 100
centiseconds (1 second).
Master_Adver_Interval Advertisement interval contained in
ADVERTISEMENTS received from the Master
(centiseconds). This value is saved by
virtual routers in the Backup state and
used to compute Skew_Time and
Master_Down_Interval. The initial value
is the same as Advertisement_Interval.
Skew_Time Time to skew Master_Down_Interval in
centiseconds. Calculated as
(((256 - priority) * Master_Adver_Interval) / 256)
Master_Down_Interval Time interval for Backup to declare
Master down (centiseconds).
Calculated as
(3 * Master_Adver_Interval) + Skew_time
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Preempt_Mode Controls whether a (starting or
restarting) higher-priority Backup router
preempts a lower-priority Master router.
Values are True to allow preemption and
False to prohibit preemption. Default is
True.
Note: The exception is that the router
that owns the IPvX address associated
with the virtual router always preempts,
independent of the setting of this flag.
Accept_Mode Controls whether a virtual router in
Master state will accept packets
addressed to the address owner's IPvX
address as its own if it is not the IPvX
address owner. The default is False.
Deployments that rely on, for example,
pinging the address owner's IPvX address
may wish to configure Accept_Mode to
True.
Note: IPv6 Neighbor Solicitations and
Neighbor Advertisements MUST NOT be
dropped when Accept_Mode is False.
Virtual_Router_MAC_Address The MAC address used for the source MAC
address in VRRP advertisements and
advertised in ARP responses as the MAC
address to use for IP_Addresses.
6.2. Timers
Master_Down_Timer Timer that fires when ADVERTISEMENT has not
been heard for Master_Down_Interval.
Adver_Timer Timer that fires to trigger sending of
ADVERTISEMENT based on
Advertisement_Interval.
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6.3. State Transition Diagram
+---------------+
+--------->| |<-------------+
| | Initialize | |
| +------| |----------+ |
| | +---------------+ | |
| | | |
| V V |
+---------------+ +---------------+
| |---------------------->| |
| Master | | Backup |
| |<----------------------| |
+---------------+ +---------------+
6.4. State Descriptions
In the state descriptions below, the state names are identified by
{state-name}, and the packets are identified by all-uppercase
characters.
A VRRP router implements an instance of the state machine for each
virtual router election it is participating in.
6.4.1. Initialize
The purpose of this state is to wait for a Startup event, that is, an
implementation-defined mechanism that initiates the protocol once it
has been configured. The configuration mechanism is out of scope of
this specification.
(100) If a Startup event is received, then:
(105) - If the Priority = 255 (i.e., the router owns the IPvX
address associated with the virtual router), then:
(110) + Send an ADVERTISEMENT
(115) + If the protected IPvX address is an IPv4 address, then:
(120) * Broadcast a gratuitous ARP request containing the
virtual router MAC address for each IP address associated
with the virtual router.
(125) + else // IPv6
(130) * For each IPv6 address associated with the virtual
router, send an unsolicited ND Neighbor Advertisement with
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the Router Flag (R) set, the Solicited Flag (S) unset, the
Override flag (O) set, the target address set to the IPv6
address of the virtual router, and the target link-layer
address set to the virtual router MAC address.
(135) +endif // was protected addr IPv4?
(140) + Set the Adver_Timer to Advertisement_Interval
(145) + Transition to the {Master} state
(150) - else // rtr does not own virt addr
(155) + Set Master_Adver_Interval to Advertisement_Interval
(160) + Set the Master_Down_Timer to Master_Down_Interval
(165) + Transition to the {Backup} state
(170) -endif // priority was not 255
(175) endif // startup event was recv
6.4.2. Backup
The purpose of the {Backup} state is to monitor the availability and
state of the Master router.
(300) While in this state, a VRRP router MUST do the following:
(305) - If the protected IPvX address is an IPv4 address, then:
(310) + MUST NOT respond to ARP requests for the IPv4
address(es) associated with the virtual router.
(315) - else // protected addr is IPv6
(320) + MUST NOT respond to ND Neighbor Solicitation messages
for the IPv6 address(es) associated with the virtual router.
(325) + MUST NOT send ND Router Advertisement messages for the
virtual router.
(330) -endif // was protected addr IPv4?
(335) - MUST discard packets with a destination link-layer MAC
address equal to the virtual router MAC address.
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(340) - MUST NOT accept packets addressed to the IPvX address(es)
associated with the virtual router.
(345) - If a Shutdown event is received, then:
(350) + Cancel the Master_Down_Timer
(355) + Transition to the {Initialize} state
(360) -endif // shutdown recv
(365) - If the Master_Down_Timer fires, then:
(370) + Send an ADVERTISEMENT
(375) + If the protected IPvX address is an IPv4 address, then:
(380) * Broadcast a gratuitous ARP request on that interface
containing the virtual router MAC address for each IPv4
address associated with the virtual router.
(385) + else // ipv6
(390) * Compute and join the Solicited-Node multicast
address [RFC 4291] for the IPv6 address(es) associated with
the virtual router.
(395) * For each IPv6 address associated with the virtual
router, send an unsolicited ND Neighbor Advertisement with
the Router Flag (R) set, the Solicited Flag (S) unset, the
Override flag (O) set, the target address set to the IPv6
address of the virtual router, and the target link-layer
address set to the virtual router MAC address.
(400) +endif // was protected addr ipv4?
(405) + Set the Adver_Timer to Advertisement_Interval
(410) + Transition to the {Master} state
(415) -endif // Master_Down_Timer fired
(420) - If an ADVERTISEMENT is received, then:
(425) + If the Priority in the ADVERTISEMENT is zero, then:
(430) * Set the Master_Down_Timer to Skew_Time
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(440) + else // priority non-zero
(445) * If Preempt_Mode is False, or if the Priority in the
ADVERTISEMENT is greater than or equal to the local
Priority, then:
(450) @ Set Master_Adver_Interval to Adver Interval
contained in the ADVERTISEMENT
(455) @ Recompute the Master_Down_Interval
(460) @ Reset the Master_Down_Timer to
Master_Down_Interval
(465) * else // preempt was true or priority was less
(470) @ Discard the ADVERTISEMENT
(475) *endif // preempt test
(480) +endif // was priority zero?
(485) -endif // was advertisement recv?
(490) endwhile // Backup state
6.4.3. Master
While in the {Master} state, the router functions as the forwarding
router for the IPvX address(es) associated with the virtual router.
Note that in the Master state, the Preempt_Mode Flag is not
considered.
(600) While in this state, a VRRP router MUST do the following:
(605) - If the protected IPvX address is an IPv4 address, then:
(610) + MUST respond to ARP requests for the IPv4 address(es)
associated with the virtual router.
(615) - else // ipv6
(620) + MUST be a member of the Solicited-Node multicast
address for the IPv6 address(es) associated with the virtual
router.
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(625) + MUST respond to ND Neighbor Solicitation message for
the IPv6 address(es) associated with the virtual router.
(630) ++ MUST send ND Router Advertisements for the virtual
router.
(635) ++ If Accept_Mode is False: MUST NOT drop IPv6 Neighbor
Solicitations and Neighbor Advertisements.
(640) +-endif // ipv4?
(645) - MUST forward packets with a destination link-layer MAC
address equal to the virtual router MAC address.
(650) - MUST accept packets addressed to the IPvX address(es)
associated with the virtual router if it is the IPvX address owner
or if Accept_Mode is True. Otherwise, MUST NOT accept these
packets.
(655) - If a Shutdown event is received, then:
(660) + Cancel the Adver_Timer
(665) + Send an ADVERTISEMENT with Priority = 0
(670) + Transition to the {Initialize} state
(675) -endif // shutdown recv
(680) - If the Adver_Timer fires, then:
(685) + Send an ADVERTISEMENT
(690) + Reset the Adver_Timer to Advertisement_Interval
(695) -endif // advertisement timer fired
(700) - If an ADVERTISEMENT is received, then:
(705) -+ If the Priority in the ADVERTISEMENT is zero, then:
(710) -* Send an ADVERTISEMENT
(715) -* Reset the Adver_Timer to Advertisement_Interval
(720) -+ else // priority was non-zero
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RFC 5798 VRRPv3 for IPv4 and IPv6 March 2010
(725) -* If the Priority in the ADVERTISEMENT is greater
than the local Priority,
(730) -* or
(735) -* If the Priority in the ADVERTISEMENT is equal to
the local Priority and the primary IPvX Address of the
sender is greater than the local primary IPvX Address, then:
(740) -@ Cancel Adver_Timer
(745) -@ Set Master_Adver_Interval to Adver Interval
contained in the ADVERTISEMENT
(750) -@ Recompute the Skew_Time
(755) @ Recompute the Master_Down_Interval
(760) @ Set Master_Down_Timer to Master_Down_Interval
(765) @ Transition to the {Backup} state
(770) * else // new Master logic
(775) @ Discard ADVERTISEMENT
(780) *endif // new Master detected
(785) +endif // was priority zero?
(790) -endif // advert recv
(795) endwhile // in Master
7. Sending and Receiving VRRP Packets
7.1. Receiving VRRP Packets
The following functions are performed when a VRRP packet is received:
- If the received packet is an IPv4 packet, then:
+ MUST verify that the IPv4 TTL is 255.
- else // ipv6 recv
+ MUST verify that the IPv6 Hop Limit is 255.
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RFC 5798 VRRPv3 for IPv4 and IPv6 March 2010
-endif
- MUST verify that the VRRP version is 3.
- MUST verify that the received packet contains the complete VRRP
packet (including fixed fields, and IPvX address).
- MUST verify the VRRP checksum.
- MUST verify that the VRID is configured on the receiving
interface and the local router is not the IPvX address owner
(Priority = 255 (decimal)).
If any one of the above checks fails, the receiver MUST discard the
packet, SHOULD log the event, and MAY indicate via network management
that an error occurred.
- MAY verify that "Count IPvX Addrs" and the list of IPvX
address(es) match the IPvX Address(es) configured for the VRID.
If the above check fails, the receiver SHOULD log the event and MAY
indicate via network management that a misconfiguration was detected.
7.2. Transmitting VRRP Packets
The following operations MUST be performed when transmitting a VRRP
packet:
- Fill in the VRRP packet fields with the appropriate virtual
router configuration state
- Compute the VRRP checksum
- If the protected address is an IPv4 address, then:
+ Set the source MAC address to virtual router MAC Address
+ Set the source IPv4 address to interface primary IPv4 address
- else // ipv6
+ Set the source MAC address to virtual router MAC Address
+ Set the source IPv6 address to interface link-local IPv6
address
-endif
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- Set the IPvX protocol to VRRP
- Send the VRRP packet to the VRRP IPvX multicast group
Note: VRRP packets are transmitted with the virtual router MAC
address as the source MAC address to ensure that learning bridges
correctly determine the LAN segment the virtual router is
attached to.
7.3. Virtual Router MAC Address
The virtual router MAC address associated with a virtual router is an
IEEE 802 MAC Address in the following format:
IPv4 case: 00-00-5E-00-01-{VRID} (in hex, in Internet-standard bit-
order)
The first three octets are derived from the IANA's Organizational
Unique Identifier (OUI). The next two octets (00-01) indicate the
address block assigned to the VRRP for IPv4 protocol. {VRID} is the
VRRP Virtual Router Identifier. This mapping provides for up to 255
IPv4 VRRP routers on a network.
IPv6 case: 00-00-5E-00-02-{VRID} (in hex, in Internet-standard bit-
order)
The first three octets are derived from the IANA's OUI. The next two
octets (00-02) indicate the address block assigned to the VRRP for
IPv6 protocol. {VRID} is the VRRP Virtual Router Identifier. This
mapping provides for up to 255 IPv6 VRRP routers on a network.
7.4. IPv6 Interface Identifiers
IPv6 routers running VRRP MUST create their Interface Identifiers in
the normal manner (e.g., "Transmission of IPv6 Packets over Ethernet
Networks" [RFC 2464]). They MUST NOT use the virtual router MAC
address to create the Modified Extended Unique Identifier (EUI)-64
identifiers.
This VRRP specification describes how to advertise and resolve the
VRRP router's IPv6 link-local address and other associated IPv6
addresses into the virtual router MAC address.
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RFC 5798 VRRPv3 for IPv4 and IPv6 March 2010
8. Operational Issues
8.1. IPv4
8.1.1. ICMP Redirects
ICMP redirects may be used normally when VRRP is running between a
group of routers. This allows VRRP to be used in environments where
the topology is not symmetric.
The IPv4 source address of an ICMP redirect should be the address
that the end-host used when making its next-hop routing decision. If
a VRRP router is acting as Master for virtual router(s) containing
addresses it does not own, then it must determine which virtual
router the packet was sent to when selecting the redirect source
address. One method to deduce the virtual router used is to examine
the destination MAC address in the packet that triggered the
redirect.
It may be useful to disable redirects for specific cases where VRRP
is being used to load-share traffic between a number of routers in a
symmetric topology.
8.1.2. Host ARP Requests
When a host sends an ARP request for one of the virtual router IPv4
addresses, the Virtual Router Master MUST respond to the ARP request
with an ARP response that indicates the virtual MAC address for the
virtual router. Note that the source address of the Ethernet frame
of this ARP response is the physical MAC address of the physical
router. The Virtual Router Master MUST NOT respond with its physical
MAC address in the ARP response. This allows the client to always
use the same MAC address regardless of the current Master router.
When a VRRP router restarts or boots, it SHOULD NOT send any ARP
messages using its physical MAC address for the IPv4 address it owns;
it should only send ARP messages that include virtual MAC addresses.
This may entail the following:
o When configuring an interface, Virtual Router Master routers
should broadcast a gratuitous ARP request containing the virtual
router MAC address for each IPv4 address on that interface.
o At system boot, when initializing interfaces for VRRP operation,
delay gratuitous ARP requests and ARP responses until both the
IPv4 address and the virtual router MAC address are configured.
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RFC 5798 VRRPv3 for IPv4 and IPv6 March 2010
o When, for example, ssh access to a particular VRRP router is
required, an IP address known to belong to that router must be
used.
8.1.3. Proxy ARP
If Proxy ARP is to be used on a VRRP router, then the VRRP router
must advertise the virtual router MAC address in the Proxy ARP
message. Doing otherwise could cause hosts to learn the real MAC
address of the VRRP router.
8.2. IPv6
8.2.1. ICMPv6 Redirects
ICMPv6 redirects may be used normally when VRRP is running between a
group of routers [RFC 4443]. This allows VRRP to be used in
environments where the topology is not symmetric (e.g., the VRRP
routers do not connect to the same destinations).
The IPv6 source address of an ICMPv6 redirect should be the address
that the end-host used when making its next-hop routing decision. If
a VRRP router is acting as Master for virtual router(s) containing
addresses it does not own, then it must determine which virtual
router the packet was sent to when selecting the redirect source
address. A method to deduce the virtual router used is to examine
the destination MAC address in the packet that triggered the
redirect.
8.2.2. ND Neighbor Solicitation
When a host sends an ND Neighbor Solicitation message for the virtual
router IPv6 address, the Virtual Router Master MUST respond to the ND
Neighbor Solicitation message with the virtual MAC address for the
virtual router. The Virtual Router Master MUST NOT respond with its
physical MAC address. This allows the client to always use the same
MAC address regardless of the current Master router.
When a Virtual Router Master sends an ND Neighbor Solicitation
message for a host's IPv6 address, the Virtual Router Master MUST
include the virtual MAC address for the virtual router if it sends a
source link-layer address option in the neighbor solicitation
message. It MUST NOT use its physical MAC address in the source
link-layer address option.
When a VRRP router restarts or boots, it SHOULD NOT send any ND
messages with its physical MAC address for the IPv6 address it owns;
it should only send ND messages that include virtual MAC addresses.
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RFC 5798 VRRPv3 for IPv4 and IPv6 March 2010
This may entail the following:
o When configuring an interface, Virtual Router Master routers
should send an unsolicited ND Neighbor Advertisement message
containing the virtual router MAC address for the IPv6 address on
that interface.
o At system boot, when initializing interfaces for VRRP operation,
all ND Router and Neighbor Advertisements and Solicitation
messages must be delayed until both the IPv6 address and the
virtual router MAC address are configured.
Note that on a restarting Master router where the VRRP protected
address is the interface address, (that is, priority 255) duplicate
address detection (DAD) may fail, as the Backup router may answer
that it owns the address. One solution is to not run DAD in this
case.
8.2.3. Router Advertisements
When a Backup VRRP router has become Master for a virtual router, it
is responsible for sending Router Advertisements for the virtual
router as specified in Section 6.4.3. The Backup routers must be
configured to send the same Router Advertisement options as the
address owner.
Router Advertisement options that advertise special services (e.g.,
Home Agent Information Option) that are present in the address owner
should not be sent by the address owner unless the Backup routers are
prepared to assume these services in full and have a complete and
synchronized database for this service.
8.3. IPvX
8.3.1. Potential Forwarding Loop
If it is not the address owner, a VRRP router SHOULD NOT forward
packets addressed to the IPvX address for which it becomes Master.
Forwarding these packets would result in unnecessary traffic. Also,
in the case of LANs that receive packets they transmit (e.g., Token
Ring), this can result in a forwarding loop that is only terminated
when the IPvX TTL expires.
One such mechanism for VRRP routers is to add/delete a reject host
route for each adopted IPvX address when transitioning to/from MASTER
state.
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RFC 5798 VRRPv3 for IPv4 and IPv6 March 2010
8.3.2. Recommendations Regarding Setting Priority Values
A priority value of 255 designates a particular router as the "IPvX
address owner". Care must be taken not to configure more than one
router on the link in this way for a single VRID.
Routers with priority 255 will, as soon as they start up, preempt all
lower-priority routers. No more than one router on the link is to be
configured with priority 255, especially if preemption is set. If no
router has this priority, and preemption is disabled, then no
preemption will occur.
When there are multiple Backup routers, their priority values should
be uniformly distributed. For example, if one Backup router has the
default priority of 100 and another Backup Router is added, a
priority of 50 would be a better choice for it than 99 or 100, in
order to facilitate faster convergence.
8.4. VRRPv3 and VRRPv2 Interoperation
8.4.1. Assumptions
1. VRRPv2 and VRRPv3 interoperation is optional.
2. Mixing VRRPv2 and VRRPv3 should only be done when transitioning
from VRRPv2 to VRRPv3. Mixing the two versions should not be
considered a permanent solution.
8.4.2. VRRPv3 Support of VRRPv2
As mentioned above, this support is intended for upgrade scenarios
and is NOT recommended for permanent deployments.
An implementation MAY implement a configuration flag that tells it to
listen for and send both VRRPv2 and VRRPv3 advertisements.
When a virtual router is configured this way and is the Master, it
MUST send both types at the configured rate, even if sub-second.
When a virtual router is configured this way and is the Backup, it
should time out based on the rate advertised by the Master; in the
case of a VRRPv2 Master, this means it must translate the timeout
value it receives (in seconds) into centiseconds. Also, a Backup
should ignore VRRPv2 advertisements from the current Master if it is
also receiving VRRPv3 packets from it. It MAY report when a VRRPv3
Master is *not* sending VRRPv2 packets: that suggests they don't
agree on whether they're supporting VRRPv2 routers.
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RFC 5798 VRRPv3 for IPv4 and IPv6 March 2010
8.4.3. VRRPv3 Support of VRRPv2 Considerations
8.4.3.1. Slow, High-Priority Masters
See also Section 5.2.7, "Maximum Advertisement Interval
(Max Adver Int)".
The VRRPv2 Master router interacting with a sub-second VRRPv3 Backup
router is the most important example of this.
A VRRPv2 implementation should not be given a higher priority than a
VRRPv2/VRRPv3 implementation it is interacting with if the VRRPv2/
VRRPv3 rate is sub-second.
8.4.3.2. Overwhelming VRRPv2 Backups
It seems possible that a VRRPv3 Master router sending at centisecond
rates could potentially overwhelm a VRRPv2 Backup router with
potentially unclear results.
In this upgrade case, a deployment should initially run the VRRPv3
Master routers with lower frequencies (e.g., 100 centiseconds) until
the VRRPv2 routers are upgraded. Then, once the deployment has
convinced itself that VRRPv3 is working properly, the VRRPv2 support
may be unconfigured and then the desired sub-second rates configured.
9. Security Considerations
VRRP for IPvX does not currently include any type of authentication.
Earlier versions of the VRRP (for IPv4) specification included
several types of authentication ranging from none to strong.
Operational experience and further analysis determined that these did
not provide sufficient security to overcome the vulnerability of
misconfigured secrets, causing multiple Masters to be elected. Due
to the nature of the VRRP protocol, even if VRRP messages are
cryptographically protected, it does not prevent hostile nodes from
behaving as if they are a VRRP Master, creating multiple Masters.
Authentication of VRRP messages could have prevented a hostile node
from causing all properly functioning routers from going into Backup
state. However, having multiple Masters can cause as much disruption
as no routers, which authentication cannot prevent. Also, even if a
hostile node could not disrupt VRRP, it can disrupt ARP and create
the same effect as having all routers go into Backup.
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RFC 5798 VRRPv3 for IPv4 and IPv6 March 2010
Some L2 switches provide the capability to filter out, for example,
ARP and/or ND messages from end-hosts on a switch-port basis. This
mechanism could also filter VRRP messages from switch ports
associated with end-hosts and can be considered for deployments with
untrusted hosts.
It should be noted that these attacks are not worse and are a subset
of the attacks that any node attached to a LAN can do independently
of VRRP. The kind of attacks a malicious node on a LAN can do
include promiscuously receiving packets for any router's MAC address;
sending packets with the router's MAC address as the source MAC
address in the L2 header to tell the L2 switches to send packets
addressed to the router to the malicious node instead of the router;
send redirects to tell the hosts to send their traffic somewhere
else; send unsolicited ND replies; answer ND requests; etc. All of
this can be done independently of implementing VRRP. VRRP does not
add to these vulnerabilities.
Independent of any authentication type, VRRP includes a mechanism
(setting TTL = 255, checking on receipt) that protects against VRRP
packets being injected from another remote network. This limits most
vulnerabilities to local attacks.
VRRP does not provide any confidentiality. Confidentiality is not
necessary for the correct operation of VRRP, and there is no
information in the VRRP messages that must be kept secret from other
nodes on the LAN.
In the context of IPv6 operation, if SEcure Neighbor Discovery (SEND)
is deployed, VRRP is compatible with the "trust anchor" and "trust
anchor or cga" modes of SEND [RFC 3971]. The SEND configuration needs
to give the Master and Backup routers the same prefix delegation in
the certificates so that Master and Backup routers advertise the same
set of subnet prefixes. However, the Master and Backup routers
should have their own key pairs to avoid private key sharing.
10. Contributors and Acknowledgments
The editor would like to thank V. Ullanatt for his review of an early
version. This document consists of very little new material (there
is some new text in Appendix A) and was created by merging and
"xml-izing" [VRRP-IPv6] and [RFC 3768], and then adding in the changes
discussed recently on the Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol working
group's mailing list. R. Hinden is the author and J. Cruz the editor
of the former. The contributors for the latter appear below.
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RFC 5798 VRRPv3 for IPv4 and IPv6 March 2010
The IPv6 text in this specification is based on [RFC 2338]. The
authors of RFC 2338 are S. Knight, D. Weaver, D. Whipple, R. Hinden,
D. Mitzel, P. Hunt, P. Higginson, M. Shand, and A. Lindem.
The author of [VRRP-IPv6] would also like to thank Erik Nordmark,
Thomas Narten, Steve Deering, Radia Perlman, Danny Mitzel, Mukesh
Gupta, Don Provan, Mark Hollinger, John Cruz, and Melissa Johnson for
their helpful suggestions.
The IPv4 text in this specification is based on [RFC 3768]. The
authors of that specification would like to thank Glen Zorn, Michael
Lane, Clark Bremer, Hal Peterson, Tony Li, Barbara Denny, Joel
Halpern, Steve Bellovin, Thomas Narten, Rob Montgomery, Rob Coltun,
Radia Perlman, Russ Housley, Harald Alvestrand, Steve Bellovin, Ned
Freed, Ted Hardie, Russ Housley, Bert Wijnen, Bill Fenner, and Alex
Zinin for their comments and suggestions.
11. IANA Considerations
IANA has assigned an IPv6 link-local scope multicast address for VRRP
for IPv6. The IPv6 multicast address is as follows:
FF02:0:0:0:0:0:0:12
The values assigned address should be entered into Section 5.1.2.2.
The IANA has reserved a block of IANA Ethernet unicast addresses for
VRRP for IPv6 in the range
00-00-5E-00-02-00 to 00-00-5E-00-02-FF (in hex)
Similar assignments are documented at:
http://www.iana.org
12. References
12.1. Normative References
[ISO.10038.1993] International Organization for Standardization,
"Information technology - Telecommunications and
information exchange between systems - Local area
networks - Media access control (MAC) bridges", ISO
Standard 10038, 1993.
[RFC 2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
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RFC 5798 VRRPv3 for IPv4 and IPv6 March 2010
[RFC 2460] Deering, S. and R. Hinden, "Internet Protocol,
Version 6 (IPv6) Specification", RFC 2460,
December 1998.
[RFC 3768] Hinden, R., "Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol
(VRRP)", RFC 3768, April 2004.
[RFC 4291] Hinden, R. and S. Deering, "IP Version 6 Addressing
Architecture", RFC 4291, February 2006.
[RFC 4443] Conta, A., Deering, S., and M. Gupta, Ed.,
"Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMPv6) for the
Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) Specification",
RFC 4443, March 2006.
[RFC 4861] Narten, T., Nordmark, E., Simpson, W., and H.
Soliman, "Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6
(IPv6)", RFC 4861, September 2007.
12.2. Informative References
[VRRP-IPv6] Hinden, R. and J. Cruz, "Virtual Router Redundancy
Protocol for IPv6", Work in Progress, March 2007.
[IPSTB] Higginson, P. and M. Shand, "Development of Router
Clusters to Provide Fast Failover in IP Networks",
Digital Technical Journal, Volume 9 Number 3,
Winter 1997.
[IPX] Novell Incorporated, "IPX Router Specification
Version 1.10", October 1992.
[RFC 1071] Braden, R., Borman, D., Partridge, C., and W.
Plummer, "Computing the Internet checksum", RFC
1071, September 1988.
[RFC 1256] Deering, S., Ed., "ICMP Router Discovery Messages",
RFC 1256, September 1991.
[RFC 1469] Pusateri, T., "IP Multicast over Token-Ring Local
Area Networks", RFC 1469, June 1993.
[RFC 2131] Droms, R., "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol",
RFC 2131, March 1997.
[RFC 2281] Li, T., Cole, B., Morton, P., and D. Li, "Cisco Hot
Standby Router Protocol (HSRP)", RFC 2281, March
1998.
Nadas Standards Track PAGE 36
RFC 5798 VRRPv3 for IPv4 and IPv6 March 2010
[RFC 2328] Moy, J., "OSPF Version 2", STD 54, RFC 2328, April
1998.
[RFC 2338] Knight, S., Weaver, D., Whipple, D., Hinden, R.,
Mitzel, D., Hunt, P., Higginson, P., Shand, M., and
A. Lindem, "Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol",
RFC 2338, April 1998.
[RFC 2453] Malkin, G., "RIP Version 2", STD 56, RFC 2453,
November 1998.
[RFC 2464] Crawford, M., "Transmission of IPv6 Packets over
Ethernet Networks", RFC 2464, December 1998.
[RFC 3971] Arkko, J., Ed., Kempf, J., Zill, B., and P.
Nikander, "SEcure Neighbor Discovery (SEND)", RFC
3971, March 2005.
[TKARCH] IBM Incorporated, "IBM Token-Ring Network,
Architecture Specification, Publication
SC30-3374-02, Third Edition", September 1989.
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RFC 5798 VRRPv3 for IPv4 and IPv6 March 2010
Appendix A. Operation over FDDI, Token Ring, and ATM LANE
A.1. Operation over FDDI
FDDI interfaces remove from the FDDI ring frames that have a source
MAC address matching the device's hardware address. Under some
conditions, such as router isolations, ring failures, protocol
transitions, etc., VRRP may cause there to be more than one Master
router. If a Master router installs the virtual router MAC address
as the hardware address on a FDDI device, then other Masters'
ADVERTISEMENTS will be removed from the ring during the Master
convergence, and convergence will fail.
To avoid this, an implementation SHOULD configure the virtual router
MAC address by adding a unicast MAC filter in the FDDI device, rather
than changing its hardware MAC address. This will prevent a Master
router from removing any ADVERTISEMENTS it did not originate.
A.2. Operation over Token Ring
Token Ring has several characteristics that make running VRRP
difficult. These include the following:
o In order to switch to a new Master located on a different bridge
Token-Ring segment from the previous Master when using source-
route bridges, a mechanism is required to update cached source-
route information.
o No general multicast mechanism is supported across old and new
Token-Ring adapter implementations. While many newer Token-Ring
adapters support group addresses, Token-Ring functional-address
support is the only generally available multicast mechanism. Due
to the limited number of Token-Ring functional addresses, these
may collide with other usage of the same Token-Ring functional
addresses.
Due to these difficulties, the preferred mode of operation over Token
Ring will be to use a Token-Ring functional address for the VRID
virtual MAC address. Token-Ring functional addresses have the two
high-order bits in the first MAC address octet set to B'1'. They
range from 03-00-00-00-00-80 to 03-00-02-00-00-00 (canonical format).
However, unlike multicast addresses, there is only one unique
functional address per bit position. The functional addresses
03-00-00-10-00-00 through 03-00-02-00-00-00 are reserved by the
Token-Ring Architecture [TKARCH] for user-defined applications.
However, since there are only 12 user-defined Token-Ring functional
addresses, there may be other non-IPvX protocols using the same
functional address. Since the Novell IPX [IPX] protocol uses the
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RFC 5798 VRRPv3 for IPv4 and IPv6 March 2010
03-00-00-10-00-00 functional address, operation of VRRP over Token
Ring will avoid use of this functional address. In general, Token-
Ring VRRP users will be responsible for resolution of other user-
defined Token-Ring functional address conflicts.
VRIDs are mapped directly to Token-Ring functional addresses. In
order to decrease the likelihood of functional-address conflicts,
allocation will begin with the largest functional address. Most non-
IPvX protocols use the first or first couple user-defined functional
addresses, and it is expected that VRRP users will choose VRIDs
sequentially, starting with 1.
VRID Token-Ring Functional Address
---- -----------------------------
1 03-00-02-00-00-00
2 03-00-04-00-00-00
3 03-00-08-00-00-00
4 03-00-10-00-00-00
5 03-00-20-00-00-00
6 03-00-40-00-00-00
7 03-00-80-00-00-00
8 03-00-00-01-00-00
9 03-00-00-02-00-00
10 03-00-00-04-00-00
11 03-00-00-08-00-00
Or, more succinctly, octets 3 and 4 of the functional address are
equal to (0x4000 >> (VRID - 1)) in non-canonical format.
Since a functional address cannot be used as a MAC-level source
address, the real MAC address is used as the MAC source address in
VRRP advertisements. This is not a problem for bridges, since
packets addressed to functional addresses will be sent on the
spanning-tree explorer path [ISO.10038.1993].
The functional-address mode of operation MUST be implemented by
routers supporting VRRP on Token Ring.
Additionally, routers MAY support the unicast mode of operation to
take advantage of newer Token-Ring adapter implementations that
support non-promiscuous reception for multiple unicast MAC addresses
and to avoid both the multicast traffic and usage conflicts
associated with the use of Token-Ring functional addresses. Unicast
mode uses the same mapping of VRIDs to virtual MAC addresses as
Ethernet. However, one important difference exists. ND
request/reply packets contain the virtual MAC address as the source
MAC address. The reason for this is that some Token-Ring driver
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RFC 5798 VRRPv3 for IPv4 and IPv6 March 2010
implementations keep a cache of MAC address/source-routing
information independent of the ND cache.
Hence, these implementations have to receive a packet with the
virtual MAC address as the source address in order to transmit to
that MAC address in a source-route-bridged network.
Unicast mode on Token Ring has one limitation that should be
considered. If there are VRID routers on different source-route-
bridge segments, and there are host implementations that keep their
source-route information in the ND cache and do not listen to
gratuitous NDs, these hosts will not update their ND source-route
information correctly when a switchover occurs. The only possible
solution is to put all routers with the same VRID on the same source-
route-bridge segment and use techniques to prevent that bridge
segment from being a single point of failure. These techniques are
beyond the scope of this document.
For both the multicast and unicast mode of operation, VRRP
advertisements sent to 224.0.0.18 should be encapsulated as described
in [RFC 1469].
A.3. Operation over ATM LANE
Operation of VRRP over ATM LANE on routers with ATM LANE interfaces
and/or routers behind proxy LAN Emulation Clients (LECs) are beyond
the scope of this document.
Author's Address
Stephen Nadas (editor)
Ericsson
900 Chelmsford St., T3 4th Floor
Lowell, MA 01851
USA
Phone: +1 978 275 7448
EMail: stephen.nadas@ericsson.com
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Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) Version 3 for IPv4 and IPv6
RFC TOTAL SIZE: 90322 bytes
PUBLICATION DATE: Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
LEGAL RIGHTS: The IETF Trust (see BCP 78)
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