In this article we will cover comparison of various first hop redundancy protocols. HSRP, VRRP and GLBP are the main three first hop redundancy protocols. In order to take the right decision for your network you should know the basics regarding all three.
The following chart provides difference HSRP Vs VRRP Vs GLBP protocols.
Difference between HSRP, VRRP and GLBP Protocols
| Protocol Features | HSRP | VRRP | GLBP |
| Scope | Cisco Proprietary | IEEE standard | Cisco proprietary |
| Standard | RFC2281 | RFC3768 | none |
| OSI Layer | Layer-3 | Layer-3 | Layer-2 |
| Load Balancing | No | No | Yes |
| Multicast Group IP address | 224.0.0.2 in version 1224.0.0.102 in version 2 | 224.0.0.18 | 224.0.0.102 |
| Transport Port Number | UDP 1985 | UDP 112 | UDP 3222 |
| Timers | Hello – 3 sec | Advertisement – 1 sec | Hello – 3sec |
| Hold – 10 sec | Master down time = 3*Advertisement Time + Skew TimeSkew Time = (256- Priority)/256 | Hold – 10sec | |
| Election | Active Router:1.Highest Priority2. Highest IP address (Tiebreaker) | Master Router: (*) 1-Highest Priority 2-Highest IP (Tiebreaker) | Active Virtual Gateway: 1-Highest Priority 2-Highest IP (Tiebreaker) |
| Router Role | -One Active Router, one Standby Router-one or morelistening Routers | – One Active Router- One or More Backup Routers | – One AVG (Active Virtual Gateway)- up to 4 AVF Routers on the group (Active Virtual Forwarder) passing traffic.- up to 1024 virtual Routers (GLBP groups) per physical interface. |
| Preempt | If Active Router(Highest Priority) is down and up again, Preempt should be configured to become a Active Router again | By default Preempt is ON in VRRP, If Active Router is down and up again, It will automatically become a MasterRouter | If Active Router(Highest Priority) is down and up again, Preempt should be configured to become a Active Router again. |
| Group Virtual Mac Address | 0000.0c07.acxx | 0000.5e00.01xx | 0007.b4xx.xxxx |
| IPv6 support | Yes | No | Yes |
Note: In VRRP group, Router which is configured group as a real IP will become a Active Router, IOS will manage to make the VRRP Router with the real IP, the master, by setting its priority to 255, knowing that the configurable range is [1-254].
Network Resources from 
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First Hop Redundancy Protocols in IPv6 HSRP + GLBP
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To Know VRRP Basic Configuration
Tutorial of HSRP Basic Configuration
