Differences between HSRP, VRRP, and GLBP — A Quick Reference
By Brian Scheibe
---------------- |
HSRP |
VRRP |
GLBP |
Preempt (Default) |
Disabled |
Enabled |
Disabled1/Enabled2 |
Virtual MAC Address |
One shared |
One shared |
Four distributed3 |
Virtual MAC Address Format |
0000.0C07.ACxy4 |
0000.5e00.01xx5 |
0007.b400.xxyy6 |
Active Device Election 1 |
Highest priority |
Virtual IP address matches interface7 |
Highest priority/Weighting8 |
Active Device Election 2 |
Highest IP address9 |
Highest priority |
Highest IP address9 |
Active Device Election 3 |
------------------ |
Highest IP address9 |
--------------------- |
RFC(s) |
2281 – Cisco-proprietary |
None – Cisco-proprietary |
|
IPv4 Multicast Address |
v1 224.0.0.2 / v2 224.1.1.102 |
224.0.0.18 |
224.0.0.102 |
Text Authentication Max Characters |
8 |
8 |
255 |
MD5 Key-String Authentication Max Characters |
64 |
64 |
100 |
Router States |
1 Active / 1 Standby / all others Listen10 |
1 Master / all others Backup10 |
1 Active / 1 Standby / all others Listen10 |
Maximum Active Forwarders |
1 |
1 |
4 |
1 GLBP – Active virtual gateway (AVG) - disabled
2 GLBP – Active virtual forwarder (AVF) – enabled
3 GLBP – Each of up to four AVFs will be assigned a unique virtual media access control (MAC) address by the AVG6
4 HSRP – Where xy is the HSRP group number in hexadecimal based on the respective interface
5 VRRP – Where xx is the virtual group number in hexadecimal
6 GLBP – Where xx is the GLBP group number and yy is the AVF number in hexadecimal
7 VRRP – The device that has a VRRP virtual IP address that matches the physical interface’s IP address will always be the Active router, regardless of preemption or priority
8 GLBP – AVG determined by highest priority / AVF determined by load balancing type configuration and weighting
9 Highest IP address on the physical interface, not the virtual IP address
10 List of states for each FHRP type:
--------- |
HSRP |
VRRP |
GLBP11 |
Initial |
x |
x |
x |
Learn |
x |
---- |
---- |
Speak |
x |
x |
x |
Listen |
x |
x |
x |
Disabled |
x |
x |
x |
Active |
x |
---- |
x |
Master |
---- |
x |
---- |
Standby |
x |
---- |
x |
Backup |
---- |
x |
---- |
11 GLBP – Forwarders only support four states: Disabled, Initial, Listen, Active