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HA GUI options

Go to System > Config > HA to change HA options. You can set the following options to put a FortiGate unit into HA mode. You can also change any of these options while the cluster is operating.

You can configure HA options for a FortiGate unit with virtual domains (VDOMs) enabled by logging into the web-based manager as the global admin administrator and going to System > Config > HA.

If already operating in HA mode, go to System > Config > HA to display the cluster members list (see Cluster members list).

Go to System > Config > HA and select View HA Statistics to view statistics about cluster operation. See Viewing HA statistics.

If your cluster uses virtual domains, you are configuring HA virtual clustering. Most virtual cluster HA options are the same as normal HA options. However, virtual clusters include VDOM partitioning options. Other differences between configuration options for regular HA and for virtual clustering HA are described below and see Virtual clusters.

 

FortiGate HA is compatible with DHCP and PPPoE but care should be taken when configuring a cluster that includes a FortiGate interface configured to get its IP address with DHCP or PPPoE. Fortinet recommends that you turn on DHCP or PPPoE addressing for an interface after the cluster has been configured. If an interface is configured for DHCP or PPPoE, turning on high availability may result in the interface receiving an incorrect address or not being able to connect to the DHCP or PPPoE server correctly.

Mode

Select an HA mode for the cluster or return the FortiGate unit in the cluster to standalone mode. When configuring a cluster, you must set all members of the HA cluster to the same HA mode. You can select Standalone (to disable HA), Active-Passive, or Active-Active.

If virtual domains are enabled you can select Active-Passive or Standalone.

Device Priority

Optionally set the device priority of the cluster FortiGate unit. Each FortiGate unit in a cluster can have a different device priority. During HA negotiation, the FortiGate unit with the highest device priority usually becomes the primary unit.

In a virtual cluster configuration, each cluster FortiGate unit can have two different device priorities, one for each virtual cluster. During HA negotiation, the FortiGate unit with the highest device priority in a virtual cluster becomes the primary FortiGate unit for that virtual cluster.

Changes to the device priority are not synchronized. You can accept the default device priority when first configuring a cluster.

Reserve Management Port for Cluster Member

You can provide direct management access to individual cluster units by reserving a management interface as part of the HA configuration. Once this management interface is reserved, you can configure a different IP address, administrative access and other interface settings for this interface for each cluster unit. Then by connecting this interface of each cluster unit to your network you can manage each cluster unit separately from a different IP address. See Managing individual cluster units using a reserved management interface.

Do NOT Synchronize Management VDOM Configuration

This options appears if you have enabled multiple VDOMS and set a VDOM other than the root VDOM to be the management VDOM. You can select this option to prevent the management VDOM configuration from being synchronized between cluster units in the virtual cluster. This allows you to add an interface to the VDOM in each cluster unit and then to give the Interfacea different IP address in each cluster unit, allowing you to manage eachc cluster unit separately.

You can also enable this feature using the following command:

config system ha

set standalone-mgmt-vdom enable

end

Group Name

Enter a name to identify the cluster. The maximum length of the group name is 32 characters. The group name must be the same for all cluster units before the cluster units can form a cluster. After a cluster is operating, you can change the group name. The group name change is synchronized to all cluster units.

Password

Enter a password to identify the cluster. The password must be the same for all cluster FortiGate units before the cluster FortiGate units can form a cluster.

Two clusters on the same network must have different passwords.

The password is synchronized to all cluster units in an operating cluster. If you change the password of one cluster unit the change is synchronized to all cluster units.

Enable Session pickup

Select to enable session pickup so that if the primary unit fails, sessions are picked up by the cluster unit that becomes the new primary unit.

You must enable session pickup for session failover protection. If you do not require session failover protection, leaving session pickup disabled may reduce HA CPU usage and reduce HA heartbeat network bandwidth usage. See Session failover (session pick-up).

Port Monitor

Select to enable or disable monitoring FortiGate interfaces to verify the monitored interfaces are functioning properly and are connected to their networks. See Link failover (port monitoring or interface monitoring).

If a monitored interface fails or is disconnected from its network, the interface leaves the cluster and a link failover occurs. The link failover causes the cluster to reroute the traffic being processed by that interface to the same interface of another cluster FortiGate unit that still has a connection to the network. This other cluster FortiGate unit becomes the new primary unit.

Port monitoring (also called interface monitoring) is disabled by default. Leave port monitoring disabled until the cluster is operating and then only enable port monitoring for connected interfaces.

You can monitor up to 64 interfaces.

Heartbeat Interface

Select to enable or disable HA heartbeat communication for each interface in the cluster and set the heartbeat interface priority. The heartbeat interface with the highest priority processes all heartbeat traffic. If two or more heartbeat interfaces have the same priority, the heartbeat interface with the lowest hash map order value processes all heartbeat traffic. The web-based manager lists interfaces in alphanumeric order:

• port1
• port2 through 9
• port10

Hash map order sorts interfaces in the following order:

• port1
• port10
• port2 through port9

The default heartbeat interface configuration is different for each FortiGate model. This default configuration usually sets the priority of two heartbeat interfaces to 50. You can accept the default heartbeat interface configuration or change it as required.

The heartbeat interface priority range is 0 to 512. The default priority when you select a new heartbeat interface is 0.

You must select at least one heartbeat interface. If heartbeat communication is interrupted, the cluster stops processing traffic. See HA heartbeat and communication between cluster units.

You can select up to 8 heartbeat interfaces. This limit only applies to units with more than 8 physical interfaces.

VDOM partitioning

If you are configuring virtual clustering, you can set the virtual domains to be in virtual cluster 1 and the virtual domains to be in virtual cluster 2. The root virtual domain must always be in virtual cluster 1.