HSRP support for a Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) VPN interface is useful when an Ethernet LAN is connected between
two provider edge (PE) devices with either of the following conditions:
Each VPN is associated with one or more VPN routing and forwarding (VRF) instances. A VRF consists of the following elements:
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IP routing table
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Cisco Express Forwarding table
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Set of interfaces that use the Cisco Express Forwarding forwarding table
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Set of rules and routing protocol parameters to control the information in the routing tables
VPN routing information is stored in the IP routing table and the Cisco Express Forwarding table for each VRF. A separate
set of routing and Cisco Express Forwarding tables is maintained for each VRF. These tables prevent information from being
forwarded outside a VPN and also prevent packets that are outside a VPN from being forwarded to a device within the VPN.
HSRP adds ARP entries and IP hash table entries (aliases) using the default routing table instance. However, a different
routing table instance is used when VRF forwarding is configured on an interface, causing ARP and ICMP echo requests for the
HSRP virtual IP address to fail.
HSRP support for MPLS VPNs ensures that the HSRP virtual IP address is added to the correct IP routing table and not to the
default routing table.