Connecting the HA Ports for Active/Active Clustering

For Active/Active Clustering, you must physically connect the designated HA ports of all units in the Active/Active cluster to the same Layer 2 network.

SonicWall recommends connecting all designated HA ports to the same Layer 2 switch. You can use a dedicated switch or simply use some ports on an existing switch in your internal network. All of these switch ports must be configured to allow Layer 2 traffic to flow freely amongst them.

The SonicWall Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (SVRRP) uses this HA port connection to send Cluster Node management and monitoring state messages. SVRRP management messages are initiated on the Master Node, and monitoring information is communicated from every Security Appliance in the cluster.

The HA port connection is also used to synchronize configuration from the Master Node to the other Cluster Nodes in the deployment. This includes firmware or signature upgrades, policies for VPN and NAT, and other configuration.