Well, I have to say Im very disappointed in the Cisco 3560 today. I was trying to do VRRP with a between a Brocade FCX switch and a Cisco 3560 switch. I found out that the 3560 just does not support VRRP (based on my efforts). Now, with that said, I can not find this documented anywhere on Cisco. In fact, Cisco say in the 3560 switch configuration guide very specifically: "The switch supports either HSRP or VRRP, but not both."
Ive gotten in on one of my customer's 3560s running code "flash:c3560-ipservicesk9-mz.122-53.SE2.bin". I also upgraded the switch I was working on yesterday from IPBASE to "c3560-ipservicesk9-mz.122-55.SE.bin" IOS. This is what I get when trying to run a vrrp command on vlan 1:
Core3560(config-if)#v?
vtp
Core3560(config-if)#v
VTP IS MY ONLY OPTION???
This is all the 3560 switch configuration guide says about VRRP:
Configuring VRRP
VRRP is an election protocol that dynamically assigns responsibility for one or more virtual routers to the VRRP routers on a LAN, allowing several routers on a multi-access link to use the same virtual IP address. A VRRP router is configured to run VRRP in conjunction with one or more other routers attached to a LAN. In a VRRP configuration, one router is elected as the virtual router master, and the other routers act as backups in case it fails.
VRRP Limitations
•The switch supports either HSRP or VRRP, but not both.
•The VRRP implementation on the switch does not support the MIB specified in RFC 2787.
•The VRRP implementation on the switch supports only text-based authentication.
•The switch supports VRRP only for IPv4.
For more VRRP information and configuration instructions, see Configuring VRRP.
Here are some quotes I found out there in forums that I found interesting:
1. "sorry to disappoint you but cat 3560/3750 only support HSRP for redundancy."
2. "3560G-48TS, some refurbs that just came in. According to the software advisor, there is no availability of VRRP on any feature set, nor any code train except 12.2."
3. "Why isn't there VRRP on the 3560?" Someones answer was this: "Vendor lock in."
I think the final answer is that the 3560 will do HSRP just fine (in fact Ive done that many times), but it just will not do VRRP.
