Configuring NAT - NAT Stateful Failover with HSRP

If you work in a high availability environment (largest options exchange in the world) like I do, then you know the value of redundant design. I dislike being caught off-guard and putting out fires. Therefore, I try to make redundancy a part of my design and when "it" hits the fan users aren't breathing down on my neck. And I can actually concentrate on fixing the issue rather than grabbing a bucket of water to put out a house fire. That is the basis for this blogtorial which is how do we configure NAT Stateful Failover with HSRP.

Please read my previous NAT posts if you need a refresher on NAT. At this point, I am assuming you are fairly familiar with NAT and its concepts, so I will get right down to business and spare you the usual 'abc' of NAT'ng. 

Consider this simple topology and let's get started.

Enterprise Campus Design - Part 1

In this blogtorial we are going to dive into how to effectively and efficiently design an enterprise network. As I have always said "Networking is an art not science" as there are numerous ways to design and I am merely posting one of many. 

In this topology we will sink our hands into: 

• STP (802.1d)
• HSRP
• OSPF 
• OSPF route summarization
• VTP
• Different layers/modules of Enterprise Campus Design

Check out the topology below and let's get started. 

Relevant configurations are posted below.

Configuring FHRP - HSRP

In any network, redundancy and high availability should be a top priority especially when it involves mission critical applications. In this blogtorial I am going to walk you through how to configure Hot-Standby Routing Protocol aka. HSRP. HSRP is a one of many First Hop Redundancy Protocol (FHRP). Note that HSRP is Cisco proprietary.

Consider the topology below and let's get started.

Objectives: 

• Configure HSRP on R1 and R2 with authentication.
• Enable failover in less than a second. 
• R1 should be the active router and R2 should be on standby
• If R1 goes offline, then R2 should take over and when R1 comes back online then R1 should take over. 

Relevant configurations are posted below so let's proceed.