R2511-HP MSR Router Series High Availability Configuration Guide(V5)

Figure 25 Answering ARP requests

3. Each host sends packets to the returned MAC address. As shown in Figure 26, Host A sends

packets to Router A and Host B sends packets to Router B.

Figure 26 Sending packets to different routers for forwarding

Virtual forwarder

1. Creating a virtual forwarder

Virtual MAC addresses enable traffic distribution across the routers in a VRRP group. To enable the

routers in the VRRP group to forward the packets, be sure to create virtual forwarders (VFs) on the

routers. Each VF associates with a virtual MAC address in the VRRP group and forwards packets

sent to this virtual MAC address.

VFs are created on the routers in a VRRP group, as follows:

Host A Host B

Router A

Master

Router B

Backup

Virtual IP: 10.1.1.1/24

Network

Gateway IP: 10.1.1.1/24 Gateway IP: 10.1.1.1/24

Virtual MAC: 000f-e2ff-0011

Virtual MAC: 000f-e2ff-0012

ARP request

Target IP: 10.1.1.1/24

ARP reply

Target MAC: 000f-e2ff-0011

ARP request

Target IP: 10.1.1.1/24

ARP reply

Target MAC: 000f-e2ff-0012