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I've added a persistent route to our Windows Server 2003 box using "route -p add". After a reboot the "route print" gave this:

Active Routes:
Network Destination        Netmask          Gateway       Interface  Metric    
          0.0.0.0          0.0.0.0      10.91.131.1      10.91.131.9     20
        10.88.0.0  255.255.255.252        10.88.0.1        10.88.0.1     30
        10.88.0.1  255.255.255.255        127.0.0.1        127.0.0.1     30
      10.91.131.0    255.255.255.0      10.91.131.9      10.91.131.9     20
      10.91.131.9  255.255.255.255        127.0.0.1        127.0.0.1     20
   10.255.255.255  255.255.255.255        10.88.0.1        10.88.0.1     30
   10.255.255.255  255.255.255.255      10.91.131.9      10.91.131.9     20
        127.0.0.0        255.0.0.0        127.0.0.1        127.0.0.1      1
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0        10.88.0.1        10.88.0.1     30
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0      10.91.131.9      10.91.131.9     20
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255        10.88.0.1        10.88.0.1      1
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255      10.91.131.9      10.91.131.9      1
Default Gateway:       10.91.131.1
===========================================================================
Persistent Routes:
  Network Address          Netmask  Gateway Address  Metric
        10.88.0.0    255.255.255.0        10.88.0.2       1

The route I added is listed as a persistent route, but not an active one. Why might this be the case?

The route in question is for an OpenVPN connection, would that have anything to do with it?

Edit I should have mentioned that the route was not working. Only once it was added again did it work. After that it did show in the Active Routes table.

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2 Answers

up vote 1 down vote

As far as I'm aware, the differentiation between Active and Persistent in the route command is simply to make it easier to identify which routes are learned and/or temporary, against those that you have explicitly added as persistent.

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong :)

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You've pretty well covered it. "Active" routes are just a rendering of the routing table as it exists at the time. As you say, it can includes routes that were learned (via a routing protocol). "Persistent" routes are those that have been explicitly defined because there may be no mechanism for them to be learned via a routing protocol. Persistent (sometimes called static) routes are commonly used when systems (servers) have multiple NICs and you want to force traffic through one or the other, depending on the destination. – BillP3rd Sep 13 '10 at 0:18
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