1. Choose Network > High Availability. You can also choose Network > VLAN and click the High Availability link provided on the VLAN Configuration page.

  2. Configure settings using the information in the following table as a guide. When you have finished configuring settings, click Submit to make your changes take effect.

    High Availability Configuration Parameters

    ItemDescription

    Interface Addresses

    Displays information about the LAN and WAN interfaces currently running on the system.

    Local State

    Displays the state of all high availability services. The system is configured to send status updates to the other system by specifying the IP addresses of that other system on a per-link basis.

    Click Refresh the status for updated information.

    Administratively Disabled

    Sets the system state to be administratively down. This causes the system to give up service and not attempt to retake the active state. This can be used for maintenance, configuration changes, or upgrading and testing the system.

    Administratively Disabled

    Disables the system administratively.

    Note: Enabling this check-box causes the other system to take over. If there is no other system, voice services are disrupted. While the system is in this mode, it will not take over for the other system in case of a failure.

    High Availability Settings

    Controls High Availability behavior.

    Note: Changing these settings disrupts service. Make sure that all systems in the group are configured in a compatible way.

    Enable High Availability

    Select the Enable High Availability check-box.

    Enable Virtual MAC

    Select the Enable Virtual MAC check-box to allow hot redundancy switchover to the standby device.

    Note: Virtual MAC (VMAC) is required for IPv6 support.

    IPv6 HA for VMAC is only supported on some EdgeMarc platforms.

    Enable Revertive Mode

    Select the Enable Revertive Mode check-box to revert to the higher priority host.
    Enable HA DHCP   

    Select the Enable HA DHCP check-box to maintain a single DHCP lease database between the Primary and Secondary systems for seamless failover.

    This avoids running independent DHCP servers on each system, which could potentially cause IP address conflicts.

    You must enable State Transfer on at least one interface by selecting the Enable State Transfer check-box.

    Designation

    Select the Primary or Secondary radio button to designate one system as the primary system or secondary system.

    Primary

    Secondary
    Instance ID

    Enter the instance ID.

    Both systems in the same group should have the same instance ID and must be unique for that group in order to not cause multiple groups on the same network to disrupt each other.

    Multiple HA EdgeMarc instances are supported with the same ID on the same network.

    PasswordEnter a password to be used by the systems in the group. The password must be the same on all systems.

    Virtual VLAN Settings

    Configure Virtual VLAN IP Addresses on the VLAN Configuration page. Choose Network > VLAN and refer to Configure VLAN Support.

    Note: IPv4 Virtual IP addresses are mandatory even if only IPv6 failover is desired.

    LAN IF Virtual IP Address

    Enter the virtual IPv4 address to be shared between the two systems. This IPv4 address must be in the same subnet as the physical LAN IPv4 address configured on the Network page.

    The virtual IPv4 address may also be used to manage the system with HTTPS, HTTPS, Telnet, SSH and SNMP. The system performs a gratuitous ARP for the virtual IP as the physical LAN MAC address of the system when an activity switch occurs and the system assumes the active role.

    Note: Some routers ARP caches may not reflect the new MAC address for the virtual IPv4 address and may require a period of time to store and forward traffic to the active system. In rare cases the upstream router may require the ARP cache to be flushed to store the new MAC address as the virtual IP owner.

    LAN IF Virtual IPv6 Address

    Enter the virtual IPv6 address to be shared between the two systems.

    WAN IF Virtual IP Address

    Enter the virtual IPv4 address to be shared between the two systems. This IPv4 address must be in the same subnet as the physical WAN IPv4 address configured on the Network page.

    The virtual IPv4 address may also be used to manage the system with HTTPS, HTTPS, Telnet, SSH and SNMP. The system performs a gratuitous ARP for the virtual IP as the physical WAN MAC address of the system when an activity switch occurs and the system assumes the active role.

    Note: Some routers ARP caches may not reflect the new MAC address for the virtual IPv4 address and may require a period of time to store and forward traffic to the active system. In rare cases the upstream router may require the ARP cache to be flushed to store the new MAC address as the virtual IP owner.

    WAN IF Virtual IPv6 Address

    Enter the virtual IPv6 address to be shared between the two systems.

    SECONDARY-WAN IF Virtual IP Address

    This field is visible only when WAN Link Redundancy is enabled.

    Enter the virtual IPv4 address to be shared between the two systems. This IPv4 address must be in the same subnet as the physical WAN IPv4 address configured on the Secondary WAN page. The virtual IPv4 address may also be used to manage the system with HTTP, HTTPS, Telnet, SSH and SNMP. The system performs a gratuitous ARP for the virtual IP as the physical WAN MAC address of the system when an activity switch occurs and the system assumes the active role.

    SECONDARY-WAN IF Virtual IPv6 Address

    This field is visible only when WAN Link Redundancy is enabled.

    Enter the virtual IPv6 address to be shared between the two systems. This IPv6 address must be in the same subnet as the physical WAN IPv6 address configured on the Secondary WAN page. The virtual IPv6 address may also be used to manage the system with HTTP, HTTPS, Telnet, SSH and SNMP.

    LAN Monitor PortThis field enables the support of LAN port link detection. Choose the port from the drop-down list.

    LAN IF Remote Address

    Enter the LAN interface remote address or subscriber remote address. This is the actual address of the other system on this interface used to connect to the other system and transfer state information.

    Tip: Select the Enable State Transfer check-box if you want state transfer to take place over this link.

    Enable State Transfer

    Select the Enable State Transfer check-box to select another interface to facilitate stateful failover. If you enable state transfer for multiple links, you have a higher chance of successful state transfer during link failures.

    Note: State transfer causes extra network traffic on that link.

    For example, if you only enable state transfer on the LAN/Subscriber interface, and this link fails causing the Secondary system to become active, the Primary system will now no longer be able to receive state updates. So if the link is restored, the Primary system takes over without a full state transfer. To prevent this, enable state transfer on the WAN/Provider interface and the management interface as well to ensure that state transfer is successful during link failure.

    WAN IF Remote Address

    Enter the WAN remote address or provider remote address. This is the actual address of the other system on this interface. This is used to connect to the other system and transfer state information.

    Tip: Select the Enable State Transfer check-box if you want state transfer to take place over this link.

    Enable State Transfer

    Select the Enable State Transfer check-box if you want state transfer to take place over the WAN remote address link.

    SECONDARY-WAN IF Remote Address

    This field is visible only when WAN Link Redundancy is enabled. Enter the IPv4 WAN address from the Secondary WAN page of the other system in the pair. This is used to connect to the other system and transfer state information.

    Tip: Select Enable State Transfer if you want state transfer to take place over this link.

    Remote Name(Optional) Enter a string to be used in SNMP traps to identify the remote system by name. It is recommended to use the remote systems hostname, however you can use any character string. If this field is left blank, the IP address of the remote system will be used in the SNMP trap.