A floating static route is a second static route to the same destination with a deliberately higher administrative distance. It sits in the configuration but stays out of the routing table - "floating" - until the primary route disappears. The moment the primary's next-hop becomes unreachable, IOS pulls the primary, the floating takes over, and traffic continues. This lab demonstrates the pattern on R1 of the base topology.
What you will learn
- How administrative distance (AD) controls which route enters the routing table when multiple sources have the same prefix
- How to configure a primary route and a floating backup to the same destination
- How to remove the primary and watch the floating take over (live demo)
- Real-world use cases for floating statics (backup paths, ISP failover, redundant data centers)
What this lab does NOT cover
- IP SLA tracking with floating statics (used to drop the primary when end-to-end reachability fails, not just next-hop)
- Floating defaults - that was the previous lab, ipc-01
Topology
Download the CCNA Base Topology .yaml
The PingLabz CCNA Base Topology - 3 iol-xe routers + 1 alpine + 1 ioll2-xe switch.