A device can disconnect itself from the VRRP group, an option which indicates that the possibilities offered by VRRP are not restricted only to the failure of a device.
VRRP only provides one backup mechanism which safeguards against device failure. In practice, however, the failure of a physical data transfer medium (e.g. DSL, ISDN or UMTS) or the unavailability of a remote station prevent the router from completing its tasks as planned. For this reason, the LANCOM-specific enhancements to VRRP also offer the ability to define the availability of a remote station as a trigger for the backup event—regardless of whether the data connection is denied due to device, connection or remote station problems.
For the definition of a virtual router, the IP address by which it can be accessed, its priority and its logical router ID are required as a minimum. The router ID serves to ensure that the regular messages from the physical routers can be assigned to the respective virtual routers.
- The router ID can assume a value between 1 and 255. The router ID also reveals the router's virtual MAC address as 00:00:5E:00:01:router ID. The router ID 0 is not permitted.
- The IP address for the virtual router can be chosen freely, however, it must obviously be within the local network. If the virtual router's address is the same as the physical router's address, then the physical router is the "main master" of the system. The main master automatically has the highest priority, that is, when it signals that it is ready for operation, it immediately becomes the active master.
- The priority can assume a value between 1 and 254. The values 0 and 255 have special meanings: With the priority '0', the virtual router is not active, with '255', this virtual router is the main master.