PSY IT Runbooks

RouterOS v7 Dual-WAN Failover Using Recursive Routing (No Scripts)

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by

GDanu
in

RouterOS v7 Dual-WAN Failover Using Recursive Routing (No Scripts)

Last updated: 2026-01-02
This is a stable, script-free dual-WAN failover method using recursive routing, scopes, and check-gateway=ping, based on official MikroTik guidance. MikroTik Help+1

1) Plan & variables (edit before applying)

Replace these placeholders:

  • WAN1_IF=ether1 (ISP1)

  • WAN2_IF=ether2 (ISP2)

  • WAN1_GW=10.111.0.1 (your ISP1 gatew_

  • WAN2_GW=10.112.0.1 (y_

  • M

    • HOST1=8.8.8.8

    • HOST2=8.8.4.4

MikroTik example uses public DNS IPs as reachability targets; you can pick any stable hosts that respond to ICMP. MikroTik Help

2) NAT (if yo

M

/ip/firewall/nat
add chain=srcnat action=masquerade out-interface=ether1 comment="NAT ISP1"
add chain=srcnat action=masquerade out-interface=ether2 comment="NAT ISP2"

3) Crea

Ea

/ip/route
add dst-address=8.8.8.8 scope=10 gateway=10.111.0.1 comment="Monitor ISP1 via HOST1"
add dst-address=8.8.4.4 scope=10 gateway=10.112.0.1 comment="Monitor ISP2 via HOST2"

This is the core of recursive routingMikroTik Help

4) Add default rou

ISP

/ip/route
add distance=1 gateway=8.8.8.8 target-scope=11 check-gateway=ping comment="Default via ISP1 (recursive)"
add distance=2 gateway=8.8.4.4 target-scope=11 check-gateway=ping comment="Default via ISP2 (backup)"

Official MikroTik example uses exactly thMikroTik Help

5)

5.

/ip/route print where dst-address=0.0.0.0/0
/ip/route print where dst-address=8.8.8.8/32 or dst-address=8.8.4.4/32

5.2 Fo

Temp

/interface disable ether1

E

  • d

  • route via

Re-

/interface enable ether1

6) Improve d

Add a second target per link (official example shows OpenDNS targets MikroTik Help
(Apply o

7) Rollback

Remove the routes you added (by comment

/ip/route remove [find comment~"Monitor ISP"]
/ip/route remove [find comment~"Default via ISP"]
/ip/firewall/nat remove [find comment~"NAT ISP"]

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