To instantly check your Keepalived instance's current state (Master/Backup), run:

ip addr show | grep "inet " | grep eth0
# OR for newer systems:
ip addr show | grep "inet " | grep -E 'eth0|ens[0-9]+'

The VIP (Virtual IP) will only appear on the master node. You can also use:

journalctl -u keepalived --no-pager -n 20
# Shows last 20 keepalived logs

For more comprehensive status checks:

# Method 1: Check process status
systemctl status keepalived

# Method 2: View full state information
keepalived -v
keepalived -d
# Debug mode shows election process (run temporarily)

Create a monitoring script /usr/local/bin/check_keepalived.sh:

#!/bin/bash

STATE=$(systemctl status keepalived | grep -oP "State: \K\w+")
VIP="192.168.1.100" # Your virtual IP

if ip addr | grep -q $VIP; then
    echo "Status: MASTER (VIP active)"
    echo "Service: $STATE"
else
    echo "Status: BACKUP"
    echo "Service: $STATE"
fi

Make it executable:

chmod +x /usr/local/bin/check_keepalived.sh

To extract state transitions:

grep -E "Entering MASTER|Entering BACKUP" /var/log/syslog
# Or for journald systems:
journalctl -u keepalived | grep -E "Entering MASTER|Entering BACKUP"

If state checks aren't working:

1. Verify config file syntax: keepalived -t -f /etc/keepalived/keepalived.conf
2. Check firewall rules for VRRP protocol (usually IP protocol 112)
3. Ensure multicast is allowed between nodes

The most direct way is using ipvsadm combined with system commands:

# Check current role
ip addr show | grep -A 1 'VIRTUAL' 

# Alternative method using systemctl
systemctl status keepalived --no-pager | grep -i 'state'

For comprehensive status checking, these approaches work on most Linux distributions:

# Method 1: Using keepalived's own status file
cat /var/run/keepalived.state

# Method 2: Checking VIP assignment
ip -br addr show dev eth0 | grep -E '(MASTER|BACKUP)'

# Method 3: Parsing logs in real-time
journalctl -u keepalived -f -n 0 | grep -E 'Entering|Leaving'

Create a monitoring script (/usr/local/bin/check_keepalived.sh):

#!/bin/bash
STATE=$(cat /var/run/keepalived.state 2>/dev/null || echo "UNKNOWN")
VIP=$(ip -o addr show | grep -v 'inet6' | awk '/scope global/ {print $4}')
echo "Keepalived State: ${STATE}"
echo "VIP Assignment: ${VIP:-None}"
exit 0

• Verify configuration: keepalived -t -f /etc/keepalived/keepalived.conf
• Check process: ps aux | grep '[k]eepalived'
• Test failover: systemctl stop keepalived on master node

For programmatic access to the status:

curl -s http://localhost:8080/status  # Requires HTTP checker configured
# Sample response: {"state":"MASTER","vip":"192.168.1.100"}