Device HA
Device HA Overview
Device HA lets a backup (or passive) Zyxel Device automatically take over if the master (or active) Zyxel Device fails.
Device HA Status
Use this screen to view Device HA Pro license status and details on the active and passive Zyxel Devices.
Label | Description |
|---|---|
Active Device Status | This section displays information on the active Zyxel Device with an activated Device HA Pro license. |
Health Status | This displays Off or On depending on whether Device HA Pro is disabled or enabled on the active Zyxel Device. |
S/N | This displays the serial number of the active Zyxel Device. |
Virtual MAC | This displays the hardware MAC address of the active Zyxel Device with an activated Device HA Pro license. |
Synch Status | This displays the synchronization progress, No Progress / Fail / Abort / Success / In Progress, between the active Zyxel Device with an activated Device HA Pro license and the passive Zyxel Device. |
Passive Device Status | This section displays information on the passive Zyxel Device with an activated Device HA Pro license. |
Health Status | This displays Off or On depending on whether Device HA Pro is disabled or enabled on the passive Zyxel Device. |
S/N | This displays the serial number of the passive Zyxel Device. |
Virtual MAC | This displays the hardware MAC address of the passive Zyxel Device. |
Synch Status | This displays the synchronization progress, No Progress / Fail / Abort / Success / In Progress, between the passive Zyxel Device with an activated Device HA Pro license and the active Zyxel Device. |
Device HA Pro License | These are the steps to activate a Device HA Pro license on your active and passive Zyxel Devices. 1. See your Device HA Pro iCard. The card contains two keys. 2. Register your active and passive Zyxel Devices at myZyxel. 3. Activate the license by entering one key on the active Zyxel Device and the other key on the passive Zyxel Device. It doesn’t matter which Zyxel Device is actually active or passive as this is dynamic in Device HA Pro. |
Service Status | This field displays whether a service license is enabled at myZyxel (Activated) or not (Not Activated) or expired (Expired). It displays the remaining Grace Period if your license has Expired. It displays Not Licensed if there isn’t a license to be activated for this service. If you need a license or a trial license has expired, click Buy to buy a new one. If a Standard license has expired, click Renew to extend the license. Then, click Activate to connect with the myZyxel server to activate the new license. |
Apply | Click Apply to save your changes back to the Zyxel Device. |
Reset | Click Reset to return the screen to its last-saved settings. |
Device HA Pro
You need a license to use Device HA Pro. Device HA Pro is easier to deploy than Device HA, is more reliable (no risk of overloading), and faster (Device HA causes a connection break of 10~30 seconds while Device HA Pro just has 1~2 seconds). In addition to configuration file backup in Device HA, device time, TCP sessions (IPv4/IPv6), IPSec VPN sessions, login/logout information, DHCP table, IP/MAC binding table and license status can also be backed up using Device HA Pro.
Active and Passive Devices
Device HA Pro uses a dedicated heartbeat link between an active device (‘master’) and a passive device (‘backup’) for status syncing and backup to the passive device. On the passive device, all ports are disabled except for the port with the heartbeat link.
In the following example, Zyxel Device A is the active device that is connected to passive device Zyxel Device B via a dedicated link that is used for heartbeat control, configuration synchronization and troubleshooting. All links on Zyxel Device B are down except for the dedicated heartbeat link.
Note: The dedicated heartbeat link port must be the highest-numbered copper Ethernet port on each Zyxel Device for Device HA Pro to work.
Failover from the active Zyxel Device to the passive Zyxel Device is activated when:
• A monitored interface is down.
• A monitored service (daemon) is down.
• The heartbeat link exceeds the failure tolerance.
After failover, the initial active Zyxel Device becomes the passive Zyxel Device after it recovers.
Deploying Device HA Pro
1 Register either the active or passive Zyxel Device with a Device HA Pro license at myZyxel. Check that it’s properly licensed in Licensing > Registration > Service in the active Zyxel Device.
2 Make sure the passive Zyxel Device is offline, then enable Device HA in Device HA > General in the passive Zyxel Device.
3 Must make sure the FTP port in System > FTP (default 21) is the same on both Zyxel Devices. FTP is used for transferring files in the event of failover from active to passive Zyxel Device.
4 Connect the passive Zyxel Device to the active Zyxel Device using the highest-numbered copper Ethernet ports on both Zyxel Devices. This is the heartbeat interface. Make sure that this interface is not already configured for other features such as LAG, VLAN, Bridge.
5 If both Zyxel Devices are turned on at the same time with Device HA enabled, then they may send the heartbeat at the same time. In this case, the Zyxel Device with the bigger MAC address becomes the passive Zyxel Device.
6 When using Device HA Pro to synchronize firmware, the location of the running firmware must be the same in both active and passive Zyxel Devices. For example, if the running firmware is in partition 1 in the active Zyxel Device (standby firmware in partition 2), then the running firmware must also be in partition 1 in the passive Zyxel Device (standby firmware in partition 2).
Configuring Device HA Pro
.
Label | Description |
|---|---|
Enable Device HA | Select this to turn the Zyxel Device’s Device HA Pro feature on. |
Enable Configuration Provisioning From Active Device. | Select this to have a passive Zyxel Device copy the active Zyxel Device’s configuration, signatures (anti-malware, IDP/application patrol, URL Threat filter, and IP reputation), and certificates.  Only Zyxel Devices of the same model and firmware version can synchronize. |
Serial Number of Licensed Device for License Synchronization | Type the serial number of the Zyxel Device (active or passive) with the Device HA Pro subscribed license. |
Active Device Management IP | Type the IPv4 address of the highest-numbered copper Ethernet port on the active Zyxel Device (the heartbeat dedicated link port). |
Passive Device Management IP | Type the IPv4 address of the highest-numbered copper Ethernet port on the passive Zyxel Device (the heartbeat dedicated link port). The active and passive Zyxel Device Management IP addresses must be in the same subnet. |
Subnet Mask | Type the subnet mask for the management IP addresses. |
Password | Type a synchronization password of between 1 and 32 single-byte printable characters. You will be prompted for the password before synchronization takes place. |
Retype to Confirm | Type the exact same synchronization password as typed above. |
Heartbeat Interval | Type the number of seconds (1-10) allowed for absence of a heartbeat signal before a failure of the active Zyxel Device is recorded. |
Heartbeat Lost Tolerance | Type the number of heartbeat failures allowed before failover is activated on the passive Zyxel Device. |
Monitor Interface | Select an interface in Available Interfaces and click the right-arrow button to move it to Monitor Interface to become a Device HA pro monitored interface. To remove a Device HA pro monitored interface, select it in Monitor Interface and click the left-arrow button to move it to Available Interfaces. |
Failover Detection | |
Enable Failover When Interface Failure (Option) | Select this to have the passive Zyxel Device take over when a monitored interface fails. |
Enable Failover When Device Service Fails (Option) | Select this to have the passive Zyxel Device take over when a monitored service daemon on the active Zyxel Device fails. |
Apply | Click Apply to save your Device HA Pro configurations back to the Zyxel Device but keep the Zyxel Device using Device HA (general). |
Reset | Click Reset to return the screen to its last-saved settings. |
View Log
Use this screen to see Device HA Pro logs on the active and passive Zyxel Devices.
Label | Description |
|---|---|
Logs | |
Active Device | This displays Device HA Pro logs on the active Zyxel Device. |
Passive Device | This displays Device HA Pro logs on the passive Zyxel Device. |
Refresh | Click Refresh to update information in this screen. |