Static Routes
By: Matthew McCormick
What are Static Routes?
Form of routing that is manual
Router uses a manual configured routing entry
Usually done by system admin by adding entries into a routing
table
Static routes are fixed, and do not change when network
reconfigured
Why should we use Static Routes?
Providing ease of routing table maintenance in smaller networks that are not
expected to grow significantly.
Routing to and from a stub network, which is a network with only one default
route out and no knowledge of any remote networks.
Accessing a single default route (which is used to represent a path to any
network that does not have a more specific match with another route in the
routing table).
Advantages to Static Routes
Bandwidth usage between router is at a minimum, none in some cases.
There
is no overhead on the router CPU.
It adds security due to choice of route configuration by the administrator.
Easy
to implement in a small network.
Very
secure. No advertisements are sent, unlike with dynamic routing protocols.
It
is very predictable, as the route to the destination is always the same.
Disadvantages of Static Routes
Configuration complexity increases dramatically as the network grows.
Managing the static configurations in large networks can become time
consuming.
If a link fails, a static route cannot reroute traffic. Therefore, manual
intervention is required to re-route traffic.
Too complex and can sometime be confusing during troubleshooting
Other protocols will work much better such as RIP, RIP 2, or OSPF
Sample Routing Scenario
Another Example
How to configure a Static Route
Router> enable
Router# configure terminal
Router(config)# ip route 10.10.20.0 255.255.255.0 192.168.100.1
Multiple static routes per destination:
Router> enable
Router# configure t
Router(config)# ip route 197.164.73.0 255.255.255.0 197.164.72.2
Router(config)# ip route 197.164.74.0 255.255.255.0 197.164.72.2
How to configure a Static
Route( continued).
The administrative distance can be manually (re)configured so that the static
route can be configured as a backup route, to be used only if the dynamic
route is unavailable.[8]
Router(config)# ip route 10.10.20.0 255.255.255.0 exampleRoute 1 254
Setting the administrative distance to 254 will result in the route being used
only as a backup.
How to trouble
Common IOS troubleshooting commands include:
ping
traceroute
show ip route
show ip interface brief
show cdp neighbors detail