Static Routing is a static way to configure the #Routing Table of a Router#. It is static as not reactive to external changes such as topology changes. Usually, this is done manually by the network administrator in order to have some sort of control over route configuration. One particular example is using static route in a stub network, where there is only one route for the network to be accessed. We could simplify the network routing by using route summarisation which represents all similar routes with a single network (using network class’s default route# but smaller subnet mask is possible) if the routes share a single exit interface.
In #Cisco Internetwork Operating System (IOS), this could be done using the command ip route and supply it with the destination network address, its subnet mask and the next-hop router’s IP address or the outgoing interface (called exit interface). Since using next-hop router’s IP address for static route could result in Recursive Route Lookup#, it is advised to use exit interface when ever possible. However, in the case of configuring on an Ethernet# link, the best practice is to configure with both the next-hop router’s IP address and the exit interface to avoid Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)# shenanigans.
Note: Static route cannot be modified in Cisco. We need to remove it manually using the no command and write a new static route.
If the static routes cannot be resolved, the router will simply remove all the routes from the routing table.