active/passive HA setup with existing production firewall

[Bvance]

I have a second PA-500 I need to add to an existing production PA-500 for active/passive HA. I have read the admin guide for HA setup, but it appears to be for two pre-production firewalls. Are there any special precautions I need to take into account so that the post production firewall syncs it's config to the new firewall? The admin guide dosen't seem to say.

Thanks,

[TranceforLife]

Hi,

l haven't done much of HA set-ups but make sure you do have a local backup copy of your configuration (somewhere on your MGMT station).

Then just follow the guide, make a priority to be higher (lower number) on the current running box with preemption is enabled. Can also disable config sync while doing configuration, after all tested enable it back. 

Cheers,

Myky

[reaper · Accepted solution]

i'd first enable HA on the production firewall without connecting the new one just yet

once the config is committed it will show as an active member and the cluster is broken (because the secondary member is 'down')

next, configure the second member's basics: HA config, management config (leave everything else default) and make sure it's device priority in HA is higher than the active member (higher number = lower priority) and cluster ID is identical

once that configuration is committed, suspend the secondary's HA functionality

> request high-availability state suspend 

next, hook up the HA cables and wait until member 1 reports the cluster is connected

once HA is up (there will be error messages as the config is out of sync) perform a sync-to-peer on the primary unit:

 > request high-availability sync-to-remote running-config

this will send the active configuration to the new device and commit it

[Bvance]

Thanks for the Info. This helped.