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Express Connect:Fast failover for VBRs attached to an ECR

Last Updated:Jul 17, 2026

Standard route switchover after an Express Connect circuit failure takes 10 seconds or more, depending on the route count. If you enable fast failover for multiple virtual border routers (VBRs) attached to an Express Connect Router (ECR), Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) detects faults and automatically switches traffic to a backup VBR within seconds, ensuring service continuity.

Usage notes

  • Each VBR can join only one failover group. A failover group can contain up to 8 VBRs. You can create a maximum of 64 failover groups.

  • All VBRs in a failover group must be in the same region but connect to different physical access points.

  • If a VBR already has a failover group configured, you must first disable that configuration before assigning the VBR to a new failover group on the ECR.

  • Only VBRs with BFD enabled can join a failover group.

  • You can enable a failover group only when the status of all VBRs in the group is Normal.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Log on to the Express Connect console.

  2. In the left-side navigation pane, click Express Connect Router (ECR), and then click the target ECR instance.

  3. In the Failover Group ID column of the target VBR instance, click the edit icon. Select a Failover Group ID and click OK.

    Failover group status

    Description

    Enabled

    VBRs with the same Failover Group ID form a single failover group.

    Not supported

    The connected Express Connect circuit port does not support multiple failover groups, so you cannot configure a failover group for the VBR.

    Disabled

    To remove a VBR from a failover group, click the edit icon in the Failover Group ID column, select Disabled, and then click OK.

    Note

    You can also select multiple VBRs and click Batch Modify at the bottom of the VBR tab to configure their Failover Group IDs.