Sidewinder G2 6.1.2 Administration Guide - Glossary of Technical ...

HA configuration
options
Chapter 17: High Availability
HA configuration options
To implement an HA cluster in your network, you will need one additional
“cluster common” IP address for each network. The HA cluster will use these
addresses as IP alias addresses. The table below summarizes the IP
addresses needed for this HA configuration.
In this example, all users in the internal or external network must use the
cluster address (aaa.aaa.aaa.5 or bbb.bbb.bbb.5, respectively). Only system
administrators should know about the other IP addresses. The same concept
applies for DNS names.
Tip: When configuring an existing single Sidewinder G2 configuration to become
an HA cluster, consider using the existing interface addresses as the cluster
addresses and getting new IP addresses for the actual NICs. This lessens the
impact on your users, who will not have to change their perception of the
“Sidewinder G2” address.
You can configure HA to perform load sharing (with both Sidewinder G2s
actively processing traffic) or failover (with one Sidewinder G2 processing
traffic and the other Sidewinder G2 standing by as a hot backup). The following
sections discuss each HA configuration option.
Load sharing HA
internal burb external burb heartbeat burb
primary IP aaa.aaa.aaa.1 bbb.bbb.bbb.1 ccc.ccc.ccc.1
secondary/standby
IP
cluster common IP aaa.aaa.aaa.5 a
aaa.aaa.aaa.3 bbb.bbb.bbb.3 ccc.ccc.ccc.3
bbb.bbb.bbb.5 a
ccc.ccc.ccc.5
a. In a load sharing HA cluster, the internal and external cluster common IP
addresses are shared between Sidewinder G2s. In a failover HA cluster, they are
assigned to the primary.
Load sharing HA, also referred to as active-active HA, consists of two
Sidewinder G2s that actively process traffic in a load sharing capacity. When a
secondary is registered to an HA cluster, synchronized areas will be
overwritten by the HA cluster configuration to match the primary. (To determine
which areas are synchronized, see “Managing an HA cluster” on page 503.)
Each Sidewinder G2 maintains its own private (individual) address, the cluster
common address for each interface (excluding the heartbeat interface), and
any other alias addresses. The Sidewinder G2s are then able to coordinate
traffic processing on a single shared IP address using a multicast Ethernet
address to ensure that each connection (and the packets associated with that
connection) is handled by the same Sidewinder G2. To configure load sharing
HA, both Sidewinder G2s must have the same hardware configuration (e.g.,
CPU speed, memory, active NICs).
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