Understanding VRRP State Transitions in Logs

[banoosh]

Hi everyone,

I'm reviewing the VRRP logs from my router and came across the following entries:

Mar 12 03:20:18.860: %VRRP-6-STATE: GigabitEthernet0/0/2.1 IPv4 group 1 state BACKUP -> MASTER
Mar 12 03:20:18.905: %VRRP-6-STATE: GigabitEthernet0/0/2.2 IPv4 group 2 state BACKUP -> MASTER
Mar 12 03:20:18.910: %VRRP-6-STATE: GigabitEthernet0/0/2.3 IPv4 group 3 state BACKUP -> MASTER
Mar 12 03:20:19.138: %VRRP-6-STATE: GigabitEthernet0/0/2.1 IPv4 group 1 state MASTER -> BACKUP
Mar 12 03:20:19.138: %VRRP-6-STATE: GigabitEthernet0/0/2.2 IPv4 group 2 state MASTER -> BACKUP
Mar 12 03:20:19.145: %VRRP-6-STATE: GigabitEthernet0/0/2.3 IPv4 group 3 state MASTER -> BACKUP

It looks like multiple routers are transitioning between MASTER and BACKUP states in quick succession. From my understanding, this could be related to VRRP preemption or priority settings, but I'm not sure why all the routers are switching back and forth within such a short time.

this happens only on the secondary router, the primary it's not happening

Has anyone seen similar behavior or could provide insight into what might be happening here? Could this be related to network instability, VRRP configuration, or another underlying issue?

Any help would be appreciated!

[balaji.bandi]

Post the configuration and also let us know how these devices connected Layer2 (is this multi device Layer 2 or back to back)

1. First check Layer 2 connection drops

2. Is the link overutilised?

3. Check on both switches; are there any logs or CPUs high?

4. check the timers 

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/ios-xml/ios/ipapp_fhrp/configuration/15-s/fhp-15-s-book/fhp-vrrp.html

Note: most are sub-interface, so focus on the primary interface connection.

[David Ruess]

Hello,

There could be issues on the network preventing VRRP packets from reaching its destination in a timely manner. As its likely a L2 connection make sure STP is not trying to reconverge and links are stable. 

Try increasing the VRRP hello/dead timers to see if that works. If it does, then there is likely latency on the local LAN and it will need to be investigated.

-David