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MikroTik MTCRE lab 11 of 14

VRRP: a gateway that survives a router failure

Give an office LAN a gateway address shared by two routers with VRRP v3: elect a master by priority, test fail-over and pre-emption, and make the master step down when its own uplink fails, using netwatch.

Run this lab

It needs Lite: its 5 nodes are set to 5 vCPU and 2,816 MB in total. That fits the free demo too.

In your workspace: Shared, then MikroTik MTCRE RouterOS v7 guided labs, then 11 - VRRP - a gateway that survives a router failure

Try it free for 30 minutesRun it on Lite from £3 a day

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Level
Intermediate
Time
About 50 minutes
Nodes need
5 vCPU, 2,816 MB
Smallest plan
Lite

The scenario

A GP surgery's single router failed during a clinic and nobody could reach the patient system for an hour. Fernvale has installed a second router, GW2, next to GW1. Both have their own uplink. The PCs point at a gateway, 192.168.1.1, that doesn't exist yet: you'll make it a virtual address that GW1 normally owns and GW2 takes over within seconds when GW1 or its uplink fails.

DeviceInterfaceAddress
GW1ether1 (uplink) · ether2 (LAN)10.0.1.1/30 · 192.168.1.2/24
GW2ether1 (uplink) · ether2 (LAN)10.0.2.1/30 · 192.168.1.3/24
Virtual gatewayVRRP VRID 1192.168.1.1 (GW1 priority 200, GW2 priority 100)
Coreether1 · ether2 · loopback10.0.1.2 · 10.0.2.2 · 198.51.100.10
PC1 · PC2eth0192.168.1.10 · .20, gateway 192.168.1.1

What you’ll practise

  • Explain first-hop redundancy, VRRP master election, virtual MAC and advertisements
  • Configure VRRP v3 interfaces and the virtual address on RouterOS 7
  • Read master and backup state
  • Test fail-over and pre-emption
  • Track an uplink with netwatch and change VRRP priority from a script

The tasks

  1. Understand VRRP
  2. Configure VRRP on both gateways
  3. Watch fail-over and pre-emption
  4. Step down when the uplink fails
  5. Reading: more VRRP options

The Lab Tasks pane has the scenario, these tasks, the checks to run, hints and the full solution.

Topology and devices

The network as it opens in EVE-NG, drawn from the lab’s own canvas, and the image each node runs.

Topology of VRRP - a gateway that survives a router failure5 nodes and 1 network, 6 links. Every link is listed as text below the diagram.CoreGW1GW2PC1PC2Office-LANeth0eth0ether2ether2ether1ether1ether2ether1
5 nodes and 1 network, with the interface names each link uses.
Every link, as text
  • Core ether1 to GW1 ether1
  • Core ether2 to GW2 ether1
  • GW1 ether2 to Office-LAN (network)
  • GW2 ether2 to Office-LAN (network)
  • PC1 eth0 to Office-LAN (network)
  • PC2 eth0 to Office-LAN (network)
Nodes in VRRP: a gateway that survives a router failure, with the image each runs and the vCPU and RAM it’s set to
NodeDeviceImage in Add NodeSet to
CoreMikroTik RouterOSmikrotik-7.14.21 vCPU, 256 MB
GW1MikroTik RouterOSmikrotik-7.14.21 vCPU, 256 MB
GW2MikroTik RouterOSmikrotik-7.14.21 vCPU, 256 MB
PC1VPCS hostBuilt in to EVE-NGCounted as 1 vCPU, 1,024 MB
PC2VPCS hostBuilt in to EVE-NGCounted as 1 vCPU, 1,024 MB

How to open this lab

  1. Sign in to your workspace at lab.cloudlabbox.com.

  2. In File Manager, open Shared, then the folder MikroTik MTCRE RouterOS v7 guided labs.

  3. Open 11 - VRRP - a gateway that survives a router failure and start its nodes, then open Lab Tasks for the scenario and the steps.

The lab is read-only. You can start the nodes and configure the devices, but changes to the topology can’t be saved. To change it, rebuild it in your own folder.

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CloudLabBox is independent of MikroTik. The lab follows exam topics and isn’t vendor training material; vendor names identify the exams and the images in the workspace.