HA synchronization
The Primary node pushes the following configuration elements to the Secondary node. This is known as synchronization.
Setting |
Synced (Yes/No) |
Editable on Secondary in Active/Passive Mode (Yes/No) |
---|---|---|
System |
||
High Availability |
No |
Yes |
Admin |
|
|
|
Yes |
No |
|
Yes |
No |
|
Yes |
No |
|
No |
No |
Authentication |
|
|
|
Yes |
No |
|
Yes |
No |
|
Yes |
No |
SNMP |
|
|
|
No |
Yes |
|
Yes |
No |
|
Yes |
No |
|
Yes |
No |
Certificate |
No |
Yes |
Maintenance |
|
|
|
Backup/Restore Allowed |
Backup/Restore Allowed |
|
Yes |
No |
|
Yes |
No |
|
No |
Yes |
FortiGuard |
Yes |
No |
Address and Service |
|
|
|
Yes |
No |
|
Yes |
No |
|
Yes |
No |
|
Yes |
No |
|
Yes |
No |
|
Yes |
No |
Network |
||
Interface |
|
|
|
No |
Yes |
|
No |
Yes |
Route |
No |
Yes |
DNS |
No |
Yes |
Packet Capture |
No |
Yes |
Global Settings |
||
Deployment |
|
|
|
No |
Yes |
|
Yes |
No |
Proxy IP |
|
|
|
Yes |
No |
|
Yes |
No |
Cloud Signaling |
No |
Yes |
Access Control List |
|
|
|
Yes |
No |
|
Yes |
No |
Blocklist |
|
|
|
No |
Yes |
|
No |
Yes |
Do Not Track Policy |
|
|
|
Yes |
No |
|
Yes |
No |
GRE Tunnel Endpoint |
Yes |
No |
Service Protection |
||
Service Protection Profiles |
|
|
|
Yes |
No |
|
Yes |
No |
|
Yes |
No |
|
Yes |
No |
|
Yes |
No |
|
Yes |
No |
|
Yes |
No |
|
Yes |
No |
DNS Protection Profile |
Yes |
No |
TCP Protection Profile |
Yes |
No |
IP Protection Profile |
Yes |
No |
ICMP Protection Profile |
Yes |
No |
NTP Protection Profile |
Yes |
No |
HTTP Protection Profile |
Yes |
No |
SSL/TLS Protection Profile |
Yes |
No |
Log & Report |
||
Log configuration |
No - all settings and Reports are independent. |
|
|
No |
Yes |
|
No |
Yes |
|
No |
Yes |
|
No |
Yes |
|
No |
Yes |
|
No |
Yes |
|
No |
Yes |
Log Access |
|
|
|
No |
Not Applicable Logs are displayed independently on each appliance |
|
No |
Yes |
Report Configuration |
No |
Yes |
Report Purge |
No |
Yes |
Report Browse |
No |
Yes |
Flowspec |
No |
Yes |
Monitor |
||
All Graphs |
No |
Not Applicable All graphing is independent to each appliance. There are no configuration options in Monitor graphs. |
Synchronization occurs immediately when an appliance joins the cluster, and thereafter every 30 seconds. In an active-passive cluster, any synchronized settings (Yes in the 'Synced' column above) are read-only on the Secondary node.
All other system configuration, network and interface configuration, HA configuration, and log/report configuration (Yes in the 'Editable' column above) are not synchronized but may be edited on the Secondary even when it is in Active-Passive Mode.
Note the following:
-
It is not recommended to perform the below actions on a Primary node when it is in HA Active-Passive mode. You need to switch to standalone mode to modify these settings:
- Configuration restore - this is likely to cause Secondary system reboots. It is better to put the systems in standalone mode and restore to each system, then place in Active-Passive mode, unless Secondary rebooting is acceptable.
- TAP mode change
- HA Secondary does not synchronize time/date from HA Primary.
- HA settings are read-write on all nodes in all modes so that you can switch from HA to standalone mode as needed.
Collected data is also not synchronized. The following data is not synchronized:
- Session data—It does not synchronize session information or any other element of the data traffic.
- Estimated thresholds—Configured thresholds are part of the configuration and are synchronized, but estimated thresholds that are shown in Monitor graphs are based on the history of traffic processed by the local system.
- Log messages—These describe events that happened on that specific appliance. After a failover, you might notice that there is a gap in the original active appliance’s log files that corresponds to the period of its down time. Log messages created during the time when the standby was acting as the active appliance (if you have configured local log storage) are stored there, on the original standby appliance.
- Generated reports—Like the log messages that they are based upon, PDF, HTML, RTF, and plain text reports also describe events that happened on that specific appliance. As such, report settings are synchronized, but report output is not.