Primary unit selection and device priority

A cluster unit with the highest device priority becomes the primary unit when the cluster starts up or renegotiates. By default, the device priority for all cluster units is 128. You can change the device priority to control which FortiGate unit becomes the primary unit during cluster negotiation. All other factors that influence primary unit selection either cannot be configured (age and serial number) or are synchronized among all cluster units (interface monitoring). You can set a different device priority for each cluster unit. During negotiation, if all monitored interfaces are connected, and all cluster units enter the cluster at the same time (or have the same age), the cluster with the highest device priority becomes the primary unit.

A higher device priority does not affect primary unit selection for a cluster unit with the most failed monitored interfaces or with an age that is higher than all other cluster units because failed monitored interfaces and age are used to select a primary unit before device priority.

Increasing the device priority of a cluster unit does not always guarantee that this cluster unit will become the primary unit. During cluster operation, an event that may affect primary unit selection may not always result in the cluster renegotiating. For example, when a unit joins a functioning cluster, the cluster will not renegotiate. So if a unit with a higher device priority joins a cluster the new unit becomes a subordinate unit until the cluster renegotiates.

Enabling the override HA CLI keyword makes changes in device priority more effective by causing the cluster to negotiate more often to make sure that the primary unit is always the unit with the highest device priority. For more information about override, see Primary unit selection on page 1321.

 

Controlling primary unit selection by changing the device priority

You set a different device priority for each cluster unit to control the order in which cluster units become the primary unit when the primary unit fails.

To change the device priority from the web-based manager go to System > HA and change the Device

Priority.

Enter the following CLI command to change the device priority to 200:

config system ha set priority 200

end

The device priority is not synchronized among cluster units. In a functioning cluster you can change the device priority of any unit in the cluster. Whenever you change the device priority of a cluster unit, when the cluster negotiates, the unit with the highest device priority becomes the primary unit.

The following example shows how to change the device priority of a subordinate unit to 255 so that this subordinate unit becomes the primary unit. You can change the device priority of a subordinate unit by going to System > HA and selecting the Edit icon for the subordinate unit. Or from the CLI you can use the execute ha manage 0 command to connect to the highest priority subordinate unit. After you enter the following commands the cluster renegotiates and selects a new primary unit.

execute ha manage 1 config system ha

set priority 255 end

If you have three units in a cluster you can set the device priorities as shown below. When the cluster starts up, cluster unit A becomes the primary unit because it has the highest device priority. If unit A fails, unit B becomes the primary unit because unit B has a higher device priority than unit C.

Example device priorities for a cluster of three FortiGate units

Cluster unit             Device priority

A                                200

Cluster unit             Device priority

B                                100

C                                50

When configuring HA you do not have to change the device priority of any of the cluster units. If all cluster units have the same device priority, when the cluster first starts up the FGCP negotiates to select the cluster unit with the highest serial number to be the primary unit. Clusters also function normally if all units have the same device priority.

You can change the device priority if you want to control the roles that individual units play in the cluster. For example, if you want the same unit to always become the primary unit, set this unit device priority higher than the device priority of other cluster units. Also, if you want a cluster unit to always become a subordinate unit, set this cluster unit device priority lower than the device priority of other cluster units.

If you have a cluster of three units you can set a different priority for each unit to control which unit becomes the primary unit when all three cluster units and functioning and which will be the primary unit when two cluster units are functioning.

The device priority range is 0 to 255. The default device priority is 128.

If you are configuring a virtual cluster, if you have added virtual domains to both virtual clusters, you can set the device priority that the cluster unit has in virtual cluster 1 and virtual cluster 2. If a FortiGate unit has different device priorities in virtual cluster 1 and virtual cluster 2, the FortiGate unit may be the primary unit in one virtual cluster and the subordinate unit in the other.