During a high-availability audit of a corporate network, a technician evaluates a VRRP pair where Router 1 (10.1.1.2) and Router 2 (10.1.1.3) share Virtual IP (VIP) 10.1.1.1. When Router 1 is powered off for maintenance, workstations on the local subnet immediately lose connectivity to remote networks despite Router 2 assuming the active master role. Troubleshooting reveals that workstations cannot reach their default gateway during the outage. What is the most likely root cause of this failure?
- Workstations were configured with the physical IP address of Router 1 (10.1.1.2) as their default gateway instead of the virtual IP address (10.1.1.1).Answer
- BWorkstations were placed on a separate VLAN broadcast domain from the physical interfaces of both routers.
- CThe Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) root bridge priority on Router 2 was set to a higher numerical value than on Router 1.
- DWorkstations were assigned IP addresses and default gateways belonging to different IP subnets.
Answer
Workstations were configured with the physical IP address of Router 1 (10.1.1.2) as their default gateway instead of the virtual IP address (10.1.1.1).
In First Hop Redundancy Protocols (FHRP) such as VRRP or HSRP, hosts must be configured to point to the shared Virtual IP (VIP) as their default gateway. When hosts are instead configured with the physical IP of a specific router, traffic goes strictly to that physical device. When that router shuts down, hosts lose gateway reachability even though the standby router correctly assumes the master VRRP role.
Step-by-Step Solution
Key Concept
FHRP Virtual Gateway IP Configuration
Estimated Time:1m 30s