HSRP standby router question

[j.vong]

Hello, I know it's a simple dumb question. Does the standby router also advertise the server address to the WAN network? If yes, does that mean a client site router will see two paths to the hub site, (one from the active router, one from standby router). If yes, does that mean when the client site sends the traffic to the hub site, the traffic will split into two paths going to both routers at the hub site so the standby router also have inbound traffic and send to the servers behind it? (this is assuming we have not set any metrics at the client router to make one path being higher preference, I basically would like to know under the default HSRP environment, does the standby router also advertise the server address to the remote sites). Or does the standby router advertise the route with a higher metric since it's a standby router?

Thanks very much for the clarification.

[Richard Burts]

The standby router does advertise the subnet on which it is doing HSRP. By default it will advertise the real metric. So yes it is likely that the client router will have two different paths to the subnet where the server is located. And yes it is likely that the standby router will have some traffic coming from the WAN which it will forward to the servers.

If I can anticipate where your question is heading, yes there is a possibility of slightly assymetic paths. Data from the client to the server may take one path (through the standby router) and the response from the server to the client may take a different path (through the active router). Normally this assymetric path is not a problem.

HTH

Rick