VSRP overview

Virtual Switch Redundancy Protocol (VSRP) is a Ruckus proprietary protocol that provides redundancy and sub-second failover in Layer 2 and Layer 3 mesh topologies. Based on the Ruckus Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol Extended (VRRP-E), VSRP provides one or more backups for a device. If the active device becomes unavailable, one of the backups takes over as the active device and continues forwarding traffic for the network.

Brocade switches support full VSRP as well as VSRP-awareness . A Ruckus device that is not itself configured for VSRP but is connected to a Ruckus device that is configured for VSRP, is considered to be VSRP aware.

You can use VSRP for Layer 2, Layer 3, or for both layers. On Layer 3 devices, Layer 2 and Layer 3 share the same VSRP configuration information.

The following example shows an example of a VSRP configuration.

Figure 11  VSRP mesh - redundant paths for the traffic

In this example, two Ruckus devices are configured as redundant paths for VRID 1. On each of the devices, a Virtual Router ID (VRID) is configured on a port-based VLAN. Since VSRP is primarily a Layer 2 redundancy protocol, the VRID applies to the entire VLAN. However, you can selectively remove individual ports from the VRID if needed.

Following Master election (described below), one of the Ruckus devices becomes the Master for the VRID and sets the state of all the VLAN ports to Forwarding. The other device is a Backup and sets all the ports in its VRID VLAN to Blocking.

If a failover occurs, the Backup becomes the new Master and changes all its VRID ports to the Forwarding state.

NOTE
The link between VSRP Master and VSRP Backup is "optional" in the above diagram. However, if the VSRP-aware device is a Brocade FastIron family device, this link is required and recommended. This is due to the need for interoperability between devices of these two platforms having different default timers. The link between the VSRP Master and Backup guarantees that the VSRP Hello message is flowing between the VSRP Master and the VSRP Standby directly to cause VSRP transition instead of relying on VSRP-Aware devices to forward and risk missing the VSRP Hello message.

Other Ruckus devices can use the redundant paths provided by the VSRP devices. In this example, three Ruckus devices use the redundant paths. A Ruckus device that is not itself configured for VSRP but is connected to a Ruckus device that is configured for VSRP, is VSRP aware . In this example, the three Ruckus devices connected to the VSRP devices are VSRP aware. A Ruckus device that is VSRP aware can failover its link to the new Master in sub-second time, by changing the MAC address associated with the redundant path.

When you configure VSRP, make sure each of the non-VSRP Ruckus devices connected to the VSRP devices has a separate link to each of the VSRP devices.

Parent topic: Virtual Switch Redundancy Protocol (VSRP)