The Host Standby Router Protocol (HSRP)

Cisco proprietary protocol

Detailed in RFC 2281
Provides gateway redundancy by sharing a Virtual IP and MAC addresses between two or more
redundant gateways belong to the same HSRP group

HSRP Terms.
Active router: The router that is currently forwarding packets for the virtual router
Standby router: The primary backup router
Standby group: The set of routers participating in HSRP that jointly emulate a virtual
router
The primary function of the HSRP standby router (virtual) is to monitor the functioning
status of the HSRP group and to quickly assume packet-forwarding responsibility if the
active router fails.

These are the steps that take place when a router or Layer-3 device (switch) fails:
1.
The standby router stops receiving hello messages from the forwarding router.
2.
The standby router assumes the role of the forwarding router.
3.
Because the new forwarding router (standby router) assumes both the IP and MAC
addresses of the virtual router, the connected network devices see no disruption in service

Debug
Router_1# debug standby
4d01h: SB1: Vlan1 Hello out 10.1.1.1 Active pri 100 ip 10.1.1.254
4d01h: SB1: Vlan1 Hello in 10.1.1.2 Standby pri 100 ip 10.1.1.254
4d01h: SB2: Vlan2 Hello in 10.2.1.2 Standby pri 100 ip 10.2.1.254
4d01h: SB2: Vlan2 Hello out 10.2.1.1 Active pri 100 ip 10.2.1.254

Hello out is the hello packet sent on the specified ip address

from line 1(4d01h: SB1: Vlan1 Hello out 10.1.1.1 Active pri 100 ip 10.1.1.254 ) the router is sending
a hello packet on 10.1.1.1 in Vlan1.
from line 4 (4d01h: SB2: Vlan2 Hello out 10.2.1.1 Active pri 100 ip 10.2.1.254) the router is sending
a hello packet on 10.2.1.1 in Vlan2.

Hello in defines hello packets received from the specified ip address

from line 2 (4d01h: SB1: Vlan1 Hello in 10.1.1.2 Standby pri 100 ip 10.1.1.254 ) the hello packet
was recieved by the router from 10.1.1.2 in Vlan1
from line 3 (4d01h: SB2: Vlan2 Hello in 10.2.1.2 Standby pri 100 ip 10.2.1.254) the hello packet
was received by the router from 10.2.1.2 in Vlan2

configure HSRP
configuring the IP address on the interface
standby group-number ip ip-address command to configure HSRP
The group number can be any value between 0 and 255 in HSRPv1 and must be the same
configuration on neighbouring routers.
In HSRPv2, the group number can be any value between 0 and 4095
IP address configured is that of the virtual router IP address for the HSRP group
Assigning a priority value to each router in a standby group help in controlling the order in which
active routers for that group are selected.
highest priority in an HSRP group becomes the active router.
same priority, the router with the highest configured IP address becomes the default active router.

Routers do not have the preempt configured, any router that boots up faster than the others in the
standby group becomes the active router, regardless of the configured priority

you can still activate the former active router to resume the forwarding role by configuring the
preempt command with a lower priority.
Verify HSRP
Show standby
Show standby brief