Problem with Redundancy Mode

Are you running network failover or using the voltage cables?

 

 

Are you using VLAN or Gateway fail-safe?

 

 

When you say "configured as a Standby unit" - do you mean that its redundancy state preference is set to standby?

Hi, CM,

 

 

Yes running the network fo and also using voltage cables.

 

 

Using VLAN fail-safe option: (VLAN external / Timeout 30 / Action Failover) but this is configured only on Active Unit.

 

 

Yes, redundancy state preference is set to STANDBY for my Standby unit 2.

 

 

***********************

 

Our everything was working fine but one day we faced some problem on Active unit as it was passing all the traffic to standy unit and got halted.

 

We rebooted the Active System but problem was still there then we configured Active/Active (Then we did set the redundancy state preference to Active on our unit 2 which was working as a Standby very well.

 

 

Now we have replaced the Active Unit with new Hardware which is working fine but the redundant unit which was in Active/Active mode is configured back to Active/Standby with prefrence of STANDBY, but again it getting Active itself.

 

 

Thanks

 

 

RGK

 

The very first thing I'd suggest is to get both units to the same version and hot fix level. It's not supported to run ha units at different versions (yes, sometimes it works, but usually it doesn't). And you're finding out why it's not supported now I'd wager..

Dear Hamish,

 

 

As per lil knowledge the ConfigSync should not work if the versions are not the same. But the HA should still works. If there might be some tuning required to make the unit 2 force standby but in case of Primary down it should then become active.

 

 

Please check if there is a possibility because I cannot downgrade or upgrade the version due to some licensing issues.

 

 

Thanks

 

 

RGK

Posted By rgk on 06/25/2010 01:57 AM

 

Dear Hamish,

 

 

As per lil knowledge the ConfigSync should not work if the versions are not the same. But the HA should still works. If there might be some tuning required to make the unit 2 force standby but in case of Primary down it should then become active.

 

 

Please check if there is a possibility because I cannot downgrade or upgrade the version due to some licensing issues.

 

 

Thanks

 

 

RGK

 

 

This is pretty much correct - only time it affects redundancy is with network failover when the transport protocol changes like in version 10 - shouldn't be a big deal here, plus we're using voltage cables as well so both would have to fail to trigger a failover. The active unit never actually does anything right? It remains active even though unit2 also becomes active? Can you check your log entries on unit2 to see if you get anything more descriptive than the typical "going active" type of message? Can you also confirm both your voltage and network cables are securely connected? Might be wise to have unit2 ping unit1's network failover address to see if pings drop when it goes active - shouldn't matter since voltage is in play, but can't hurt to try...

SOL9057 details the ports/protocols used for network failover. 9.2 used SCTP which no other version uses. So you can't use network failover with 9.2 and any other version.

 

 

Also, even if you don't have current support you should be able to install any LTM version that was released while you had support (or possibly even later). See these solutions for details:

 

 

SOL9057: Service port and protocol used for BIG-IP network failover

 

https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/9000/000/sol9057.html

 

 

SOL7727: A service check date that is earlier than the license check date now requires you to relicense the system before upgrading

 

https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/7000/700/sol7727.html

 

 

Aaron

Posted By hoolio on 06/25/2010 06:40 AM

 

SOL9057 details the ports/protocols used for network failover. 9.2 used SCTP which no other version uses. So you can't use network failover with 9.2 and any other version.

 

 

Also, even if you don't have current support you should be able to install any LTM version that was released while you had support (or possibly even later). See these solutions for details:

 

 

SOL9057: Service port and protocol used for BIG-IP network failover

 

https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/9000/000/sol9057.html

 

 

SOL7727: A service check date that is earlier than the license check date now requires you to relicense the system before upgrading

 

https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/7000/700/sol7727.html

 

 

Aaron

 

 

Aaron - he mentioned he's also using voltage though. Voltage will always take precedence. The only way network fail-over should come into play is if voltage has failed too.

Sorry, I just read the first post--not the third where he said he was using hardwire failover as well. I think you're correct that hardwire failover takes precedence over network. With mixed LTM versions even with hardwire failover, you might see constant "connection to peer lost" messages, but the units should stay active/standby.

 

 

Aaron

Hi rgk,

 

 

You might also want to check that the hardware failover cable has the correct pinout: https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/1000/400/sol1426.html. If it is anything else the heartbeat won't get transmitted to the other unit. May be a long shot, but worth investigating.

 

 

-George

Rehan - I'd probably quit using network failover and see if that solves the problem. It shouldn't affect anything, but it wouldn't hurt...Also - as I mentioned, check out the logs on both units when the secondary goes from standby to active...it shouldn't do that unless it detects an issue with the voltage cable.