Configuring IP Follow on a Virtual Routing Interface

Configuring IP Follow can help conserve IP address space.

IP Follow allows multiple virtual routing interfaces to share the same IP address. With this feature, one virtual routing interface is configured with an IP address, while the other virtual routing interfaces are configured to follow that IP address; they use (follow) the same virtual routing interface that owns that IP address.

The following limitations apply for IP Follow:

  • When configuring IP Follow, the primary virtual routing interface should not have ACLs or DoS Protection configured. It is recommended that you create a dummy virtual routing interface as the primary and use the IP follow virtual routing interface for the network.

  • Global Policy Based Routing is not supported when IP Follow is configured.

  • IPv6 does not support IP Follow.

  • RUCKUS ICX devices support IP Follow with OSPF and VRRP protocols only.

  1. Enter global configuration mode. 
    device# configure terminal
  2. Create a VLAN. 
    device(config)# vlan 2 name Marketing
    VLAN 2 is named for the Marketing department.
  3. Add a range of untagged Ethernet ports to the VLAN. 
    device(config-vlan-2)# untag ethernet 1/1/1 to 1/1/4
  4. Create a virtual routing interface for the VLAN. 
    device(config-vlan-2)# interface ve 2
  5. Assign an IP address to the virtual interface. 
    device(config-vif-2)# ip address 10.1.2.1/24
  6. Configure a second virtual interface. 
    device(config-vif-2)# interface ve 3
  7. Configure the second virtual interface to follow the IP address assigned to virtual interface 1. 
    device(config-vif-3)# ip follow ve 2
  8. Configure a third virtual interface. 
    device(config-vif-3)# interface ve 4
  9. Configure the third virtual interface to follow the IP address assigned to virtual interface 1. 
    device(config-vif-4)# ip follow ve 2

The following example allows virtual interface 3 and 4 to follow the IP address assigned to virtual interface 2. Virtual routing interface 3 and 4 do not have their own IP subnet addresses, but share the IP address of virtual routing interface 2. 

device(config)# vlan 2 name Marketing
device(config-vlan-2)# untag ethernet 1/1/1 to 1/1/4
device(config-vlan-2)# interface ve 2
device(config-vif-2)# ip address 10.10.2.1/24
device(config-vif-2)# interface ve 3
device(config-vif-3)# ip follow ve 2
device(config-vif-3)# interface ve 4
device(config-vif-4)# ip follow ve 2
Parent topic: IP Addressing