VRRP: Increasing Reliability and Failover with the Virtual Router Redundance Protocol

VRRP: Increasing Reliability and Failover with the Virtual Router Redundance Protocol

by Ayikudy Srikanth, Adnan Adam Onart
Released September 2002
Publisher(s): Addison-Wesley Professional
ISBN: 9780201715002

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Book description

"A detailed and clearly written book that is an invaluable resource to all VRRP users and implementers."
--Scott Bradner, Senior Technical Consultant, Harvard University

By employing the Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP), administrators can ensure that their networks remain up and running, thereby eliminating expensive downtime. Using VRRP to avoid network outages is essential to building accessible, robust networks, and central to the implementation of successful disaster recovery models. Written by experts who contributed to the design of the VRRP protocol and participated actively in its deployment, VRRP: Increasing Reliability and Failover with the Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol is your best introduction to this powerful high-availability tool.

VRRP examines the general characteristics of the protocol and its usage. The emphasis is on translating the protocol specification into a tutorial form ideal for day-to-day users of VRRP. In addition to introducing the technology, this book provides an in-depth analysis, featuring extensive material on configuring, managing, and troubleshooting VRRP. Precursors to this protocol, such as Cisco's HSRP and DEC's IPSTP, are also discussed. Various vendor-specific extensions to VRRP--and their use in solving specific high-availability problems not addressed by VRRP--are also examined.

Network administrators and managers, protocol implementers, practicing professionals, researchers, and students exploring the area of high availability will gain a solid understanding of the core concepts of reliability and redundancy based on VRRP, as well as the particulars of the VRRP protocol and how to implement it.

The appendixes provide the necessary background for networking and TCP/IP, the full text of VRRP MIB, a study of actual VRRP implementations and an analysis of public-domain software available for VRRP over Linux, an overview of the VRRP state machine using SDL flowcharts and UML diagrams, and an analysis of the protocol through formal logic.



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Table of contents

  1. Copyright
  2. Preface
  3. Acknowledgments
  4. VRRP in Perspective
    1. Networking, Availability, and VRRP
      1. Availability and Networking
      2. Networking and Availability
      3. Virtual Router Redundancy
    2. VRRP Overview
      1. The Case for VRRP
      2. Basic Concepts and Configurations
      3. Load Sharing
      4. Multiple Backups
      5. Ownership
      6. Virtual Routers Without Owner
      7. One Backup Protecting Two Masters
      8. Virtual Routers with Multiple IP Addresses
      9. Failure Cases
      10. A Few Words About Router Virtuality
      11. Case Studies
  5. A Closer Look at VRRP
    1. VRRP Messages
      1. Message Format
      2. Message Exchange
      3. Sniffed Data from VRRP Messages
    2. VRRP in Action
      1. VRRP State Machine
      2. VRRP State Machine in Motion
      3. VRRP Operations
    3. VRRP and Network Technologies
      1. VRRP Over Ethernet
      2. VRRP and Learning Bridges
      3. VRRP over FDDI
      4. VRRP over Token Ring
      5. VRRP Over ATM LANE
    4. VRRP and VPNs
      1. VRRP and Firewalls
      2. VRRP and Tunnels
      3. Trade-Offs in VPN Availability
  6. Managing VRRP
    1. SNMP Management
      1. VRRP MIB Organization
      2. Illustrative Cases
      3. A Closer Look at the VRRP Operations Table
      4. Configuring VRRP Operational Tables
      5. Associated IP Address Table
      6. A Pseudo Command Set for VRRP Configurations
      7. VRRP Statistics
      8. VRRP Notifications
      9. Browsing SNMP MIB
      10. SNMP Management of VRRP: Operational Issues
    2. VRRP Configuration and CRAFT PERSON INTERFACE
      1. CLI Hierarchy
      2. Configuration CLI Commands
      3. Basic VRRP Configuration
      4. Monitoring and Troubleshooting Using CLI
    3. VRRP Configuration Using a Graphical User Interface
      1. Nortel Networks Site Manager
      2. Configuring VRRP on Nortel Networks Contivity Extranet Switch
      3. Nortel Networks Accelar Device Manager
      4. Monitoring VRRP Using HP Openview
  7. VRRP: Past and Future
    1. Precursors to VRRP
      1. Cisco's HSRP
      2. Digital Equipment Corporation's IP Standby Protocol
    2. Future of VRRP
      1. Extensions to VRRP
      2. VRRP for Advanced High Availability
      3. Future of VRRP: VRRP and IPv6
      4. Future of High Availability: Clustering and Beyond
  8. Appendixes
    1. Networking and TCP/IP Overview
      1. Layering the Network
      2. Forwarding the Data
      3. Controlling the Network
      4. Securing the Network
      5. Managing the Network
    2. VRRP MIB (from RFC 2787)
    3. VRRP in the Public Domain
      1. Data Structure Definitions for VRRP
      2. Computing fhe VRRP Checksum
      3. Setting the Hardware Address of the Interface to Virtual MAC or Vice-Versa
      4. Routines to Compute Various Header Sizes in Octets
      5. VRRP Header Verification on a Received VRRP Advertisement Packet
      6. Building a Valid Data Packet to be Sent over Ethernet
      7. Sending the VRRP Advertisement
      8. Configuring a List of IP Addresses for a Virtual Router
      9. Initializing the Virtual Router Structure
      10. Checking the Minimal User Configuration
      11. Receiving a VRRP Advertisement
      12. Sending Gratuitous ARPs
      13. VRRP State Machine
      14. Joining the Multicast Group
      15. Administrator-Forced Transitions
      16. The VRRP Daemon—Sample Main Routine
      17. Other Helper Routines
    4. SDL Overview and Flowcharts for VRRP
      1. Graphical Representations
      2. VRRP State Machine Transitions
    5. VRRP from a Logical Point of View
      1. Approach and Notation
      2. Logical Laws and Equivalences Used in the Discussions
      3. About Our Formal Perspective
      4. Concepts
      5. Protocol Assertions
      6. Explications for State Machine
      7. Norms
      8. List of Symbolic Assertions and Norms
    6. UML Overview and Diagrams for VRRP
      1. State Diagrams
      2. Sequence Diagrams
      3. VRRP State Diagram
      4. VRRP Sequence Diagram
    7. References

Product information

  • Title: VRRP: Increasing Reliability and Failover with the Virtual Router Redundance Protocol
  • Author(s): Ayikudy Srikanth, Adnan Adam Onart
  • Release date: September 2002
  • Publisher(s): Addison-Wesley Professional
  • ISBN: 9780201715002