FTD · FAILOVER

FTD-style: a failover pair from the manager

F1 is working, and F2 is registered and empty, with a direct cable between the two Gi0/3 ports. On an ASA you would type failover lines on each unit. Here, one form describes the pair, and a deployment sets up both.

Cisco FTD-style track · Cisco FTD-style, FTD Manager, Cisco router and switches · 5 objectives

Open in simulator More Cisco FTD-style labs

Objectives

The simulator ticks each one as soon as the network meets it.

On Interfaces and zones, give F1’s inside the standby address 192.168.1.2 and its outside 203.0.113.2. Configure the interfaces again with the standby address filled in.
On High availability, make pair HQ-PAIR: primary F1, secondary F2, interface Gi0/3, link FOLINK, key LABKEY, 10.255.255.1 and 10.255.255.2, mask 255.255.255.252.
Deploy. The screen shows F1 active and F2 standby, and F2’s show failover agrees. F2 copied F1’s interfaces.
PC1 reaches 198.51.100.1.
Swap the active unit. PC1 still reaches 198.51.100.1, and F2’s show logging has the switch to active.

Start this lab

Before you start

Keep configuring F1: the intent for the pair stays there, whichever unit is active. A deployment goes to the active unit, and the standby copies it. Each unit keeps its own management address.

Concept

Active/standby failover

Two firewalls act as one. The active unit forwards traffic on the main addresses, and the standby waits on the standby addresses, with a copy of the configuration that the active unit sends it over the failover link. If the active unit or one of its monitored interfaces fails, the standby takes the role and the main addresses, so hosts keep the same gateway. The unit that recovers does not take the role back.

Concept

Nothing changes until you deploy

A manager holds intent. Editing it changes nothing on any firewall, and a device shows Pending when the two differ. Deploy compiles the policy to configuration lines and replaces the firewall’s configuration as one change. If a line fails, the firewall goes back to what it had.