Is it possible to set up two MT servers in redundant config?

RouterOS General
1

I didn’t find a guide or much on the internet about this topic so thought I would try here:

How would I set up two identical Mikrotik boxes to make them redundant?

I have a few interfaces, one is bridged and another NATed.
Is there a way to assign the SAME IP to two MT boxes as the gateway for the NAT? That way if I need to take one offline, the other just takes over.

I would like it to be active-active where they are both doing stuff all the time in maybe a load-balancing fashion. But if that isn’t possible I’ll take a hot standby config or active-passive with some sort of auto fail-over.

At the very least I would take a method for starting up a spare redundant MT box with the exact config as the first in case of hardware failure.

Anyone have any suggestions on this?

2

Take a look at VRRP protocol (Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol) - this is likely what you want for standby solution:
http://www.mikrotik.com/docs2.8/ip/vrrp.main

A load-balancing solution is not possible the way you describe it - you can give two active boxes on the same segment identical addresses…

Best regards,
Christian Meis

3

Awesome, thanks!

Now what is the best way to make my bridging redundant?

What would happen if I take two MT boxes, both bridging the same network segment? Does this create some sort of bridge loop if there is just a non-managed switch on one side of the bridge?

4

If you are able to duplicate your physical layer, OSPF works well to load balance and provide automatic fail-over. We use this on our wireless repeaters to ensure redundancy.