What is VRRP and how does it provide gateway redundancy?

• A. VRRP encrypts traffic between routers
• B. VRRP creates a virtual router with a shared IP; one router is active (master) and others are backups; failure of the master triggers failover.
• C. VRRP is a VPN standard
• D. VRRP is a routing protocol like OSPF

Answer: (B)

VRRP creates a virtual router with a shared IP address that devices use as their default gateway. Within the VRRP group, one device acts as the master (the active gateway) and the others stay on standby. If the master fails, one of the backups is promoted to master, starts handling traffic for the virtual IP, and the gateway remains reachable without any change to hosts’ configurations.

This setup is achieved through periodic VRRP communications that elect and monitor the master. The master responds to ARP requests for the virtual IP, and backups monitor its presence so they can take over quickly if the master disappears. VRRP isn’t about encryption, VPNs, or calculating routes like OSPF; its purpose is to provide seamless gateway redundancy.