Bird and keepalived.

[Jeroen Massar]

> On 26 Mar 2026, at 09:51, Alexander Javoronkov <nmi at nmi.ru> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>> Il giorno 26 mar 2026, alle ore 10:55, Mike Neo <neomikemac at gmail.com> ha scritto:
>> 
>> Is this typically handled purely via VRRP + routing changes, or are there additional mechanisms commonly used?
> 
> I would scrap the VRRP idea at all; imo it is best to connect both of your routers to your peer (IX).

What Alexander says.

When a node can speak BGP use that, possibly along with BFD.

When a node on a subnet cannot speak VRRP, then let two routers do VRRP so that the MAC&IP remain stable for the nodes on that subnet.

But IMHO, where possible, just speak BGP; much easier to see state of everything.


The situations where one has to do "failover" on an IX are often maintenance, eg hardware or software upgrades. Broken hardware is often rare (knock on wood :) )

And as such, if you do not want to connect twice to the same IX (as then one has to also tell peers what router to prefer so one can load balance traffic a little bit over the two router connections); it is often better to see if you can connect to multiple IX. As that gives you proper redundancy.

Regards,
 Jeroen