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Network+ lab 11 of 27

Gateway redundancy with VRRP and a virtual IP

Give an office two routers that share a virtual gateway address with VRRP. You set priorities and preemption, track the uplink so a dead path hands over the gateway, measure failover, and finish with an active-active design where both routers carry traffic.

Run this lab

It needs Lite: its 5 nodes are set to 5 vCPU and 3,584 MB in total. That fits the free demo too.

In your workspace: Shared, then CompTIA Network Plus N10-009 guided labs, then 11 - Gateway redundancy with VRRP and a virtual IP

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, 3,584 MB
Smallest plan
Lite

The scenario

The Harbour Logistics depot office has two routers, R1 and R2, each with its own uplink to head office (R3), but every PC points at a single gateway. When that router reboots for an update, the whole office is offline, even though the other router is fine. You'll make the gateway redundant with VRRP, so the PCs keep one gateway address that moves between routers.

DeviceInterfaceAddressNotes
R1Gi0/010.10.10.2/24office LAN
R1Gi0/110.0.13.1/30uplink to R3
R2Gi0/010.10.10.3/24office LAN
R2Gi0/110.0.23.2/30uplink to R3
VRRP group 10virtual IP10.10.10.1PC1's gateway; R1 master
VRRP group 20virtual IP10.10.10.254PC2's gateway; R2 master
R3Loopback0203.0.113.1/24head office and internet

OSPF already runs between the three routers. PC1 uses gateway 10.10.10.1 and PC2 uses 10.10.10.254; neither address exists yet.

What you’ll practise

  • Explain why a single default gateway is a single point of failure
  • Configure VRRP with a virtual IP, priorities and preemption
  • Identify the master, the backup and the virtual MAC address
  • Track an uplink so the gateway role moves when the path fails
  • Compare active-passive and active-active high availability

The tasks

  1. See the single point of failure
  2. Configure VRRP group 10
  3. Fail over and measure it
  4. Track the uplink
  5. Go active-active

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 Gateway redundancy with VRRP and a virtual IP5 nodes and 1 network, 6 links. Every link is listed as text below the diagram.R1R2R3PC1PC2Office-LANeth0eth0Gi0/0Gi0/0Gi0/1Gi0/0Gi0/1Gi0/1
5 nodes and 1 network, with the interface names each link uses.
Every link, as text
  • R1 Gi0/0 to Office-LAN (network)
  • R2 Gi0/0 to Office-LAN (network)
  • PC1 eth0 to Office-LAN (network)
  • PC2 eth0 to Office-LAN (network)
  • R1 Gi0/1 to R3 Gi0/0
  • R2 Gi0/1 to R3 Gi0/1
Nodes in Gateway redundancy with VRRP and a virtual IP, with the image each runs and the vCPU and RAM it’s set to
NodeDeviceImage in Add NodeSet to
R1Cisco IOSvvios-adventerprisek9-m.SPA.159-3.M61 vCPU, 512 MB
R2Cisco IOSvvios-adventerprisek9-m.SPA.159-3.M61 vCPU, 512 MB
R3Cisco IOSvvios-adventerprisek9-m.SPA.159-3.M61 vCPU, 512 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 CompTIA Network Plus N10-009 guided labs.

  3. Open 11 - Gateway redundancy with VRRP and a virtual IP 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 CompTIA, Cisco and Netgate. The lab follows exam topics and isn’t vendor training material; vendor names identify the exams and the images in the workspace.