This value sets a dimensionless metric, chosen by the provisioner, used to compare and prioritize this static route against others; lower values indicate a more preferred route, and it defaults to the maximum value 2147483647 (effectively least preferred). An admin tunes it to control which of several static routes to the same destination is preferred, or how the route ranks after redistribution into another routing protocol. For example, setting this to a low value like 10 on a primary static route would make it strongly preferred over a backup static route left at the high default metric.