HSRP With NAT & Load Sharing

[Eric_Denis]

We are looking to implement HSRP on our Routers. Our company has many vlans and branch offices. We would like to have HSRP setup in a way that can share the load between the routers. We were planning to make the Router 1 the Gateway for certain Vlans and Router 2 the Gateway for the other vlans. We also will be including our Internet uplink in the HSRP configuration in case a router goes down. I know I need to implement SNAT and some other configs. My question is will this work? If router one is the active router for the Internet but Router 2 is the active gateway for a branch office will they still be able to get onto the internet? I know this isent the best explanation but any help would be appreciated.

Thank You 

[Akhileshpk_2]

Hi,

Will you be able to share a diagram of ur setup to understand the topology and the requirement?

Akhil

[Latchum Naidu]

Hi,

First of all HSRP will not do any Load balance. If you are looking for load balance then go with VRRP.

And yes you can configure SNAT on HSRP routers for redundancy.

Please click on the correct answer if this answered your question.

Regards,

Naidu.

[Akhileshpk_2]

Hi Naidu,

naiduccnp wrote:
Hi,
First of all HSRP will not do any Load balance. If you are looking for load balance then go with VRRP.
And yes you can configure SNAT on HSRP routers for redundancy.
Please click on the correct answer if this answered your question.
Regards,
Naidu.

Both HSRP and VRRP will not do loadbalancing. you need to use GLBP for the load balancing.

To comment more on this, share the topology please.

Thanks and Regards,

Akhi

[Latchum Naidu]

Hi,

Of course GLBP is the best for load balance untill it is big network I prefer VRRP.

And who told you that VRRP will not do load balance....It will do but not ont the same interface.

Refer the below link for more...

http://www.ciscoblog.com/archives/2006/04/hsrp_vs_vrrp_vs.html

Regards,

Naidu.

[Eric_Denis]

I have attached a PDF with the a example of what we want to do. As for Load Balencing with HSRP, it is possible with MHSRP using different Gateways.

As you can see from the diagram we want to make Router 1 active for Office 1 and standby for Office 2 & 3. Router 2 is Active for Office 2 & 3 but stabdby for Office 1. This configuration will work on the LAN side. The question is on the WAN/Internet Side with NAT, since router 1 will be active for the WAN/Internet and Router 2 is standby, what happens when Office 2 makes an internet request? will Router 2, which is standby for the WAN, NAT the request and responce? or will it have to be forwarded to Router 1?

Thanks

[robert.falconer]

Eric,

Why are you trying to share the load between the routers? What are you hoping to accomplish from this?

[Eric_Denis]

Why not? We will be implementing HSRP so why have one router just sit there 24/7 when

we can make it actually do some processing while providing the redudancy.

[robert.falconer]

I just wanted to understand that you were only trying to get utilization out of the hardware you purchased. It's pretty common to split up HSRP primary/secondary and STP roots between in order to load share and utilize devices.

I don't see why this wouldn't work as long as you don't overlap your public IP NAT space on each router.

[Eric_Denis]

Do I need to have seperate nat running on each router or can I have router 1 running as active for the Wan interface and router 2 as stanby while still having web request comming from router 2? Will Router 2 NAT its own request or will it need to forward to router 1?