HA Group – Heartbeat Interfaces

When creating a Cloud Edge HA group, one interface on each HA peer is designated as the heartbeat interface. This interface is chosen during HA group creation.

  • The heartbeat interface must be an L3 interface.

  • The heartbeat interface must use the same interface on each gateway (for example: LAN2-to-LAN2 or LAN3-to-LAN3).

  • The two heartbeat interfaces must be connected directly to each other (not through a switch).

  • Heartbeat interfaces cannot be used for other purposes, such as LAN traffic interfaces.

  • You must configure IPv4 addresses and netmasks for the heartbeat interfaces and the IPv4 addresses must be on the same subnet.

  • After an interface has been selected as a heartbeat interface, you cannot change the configuration of that interface, including gateway IP addresses.

Managing a Split-brain Condition

  • Because Cloud Edge uses only one interface for the HA group heartbeat, issues with the heartbeat connection might cause an condition known as the split-brain problem. Cloud Edge must be able to handle this condition.

  • Split-brain: A split-brain condition is the result of a cluster partition, where each side believes the other is dead, and then proceeds to take over resources as though the other side no longer owns any resources.

Parent topic: Creating an HA Group