Changing the heartbeat interval
The heartbeat interval is the time between sending HA heartbeat packets. The heartbeat interval range is 1 to 20 (100*ms). The heartbeat interval default is 2 (200 ms).
A heartbeat interval of 2 means the time between heartbeat packets is 200 ms. Changing the heartbeat interval to 5 changes the time between heartbeat packets to 500 ms (5 * 100ms = 500ms).
The HA heartbeat packets consume more bandwidth if the heartbeat interval is short. But if the heartbeat interval is very long, the cluster is not as sensitive to topology and other network changes.
Use the following CLI command to increase the heartbeat interval to 10:
config system ha
set hb-interval 10 end
The heartbeat interval combines with the lost heartbeat threshold to set how long a cluster unit waits before assuming that another cluster unit has failed and is no longer sending heartbeat packets. By default, if a cluster unit does not receive a heartbeat packet from a cluster unit for 6 * 200 = 1200 milliseconds or 1.2 seconds the cluster unit assumes that the other cluster unit has failed.
You can increase both the heartbeat interval and the lost heartbeat threshold to reduce false positives. For example, increasing the heartbeat interval to 20 and the lost heartbeat threshold to 30 means a failure will be assumed if no heartbeat packets are received after 30 * 2000 milliseconds = 60,000 milliseconds, or 60 seconds.
Use the following CLI command to increase the heartbeat interval to 20 and the lost heartbeat threshold to 30:
config system ha
set hb-lost-threshold 20 set hb-interval 30
end
Changing the time to wait in the helo state
The hello state hold-down time is the number of seconds that a cluster unit waits before changing from hello state to work state. After a failure or when starting up, cluster units operate in the hello state to send and receive heartbeat packets so that all the cluster units can find each other and form a cluster. A cluster unit should change from the hello state to work state after it finds all of the other FortiGate units to form a cluster with. If for some reason all cluster units cannot find each other during the hello state then some cluster units may be joining the cluster after it has formed. This can cause disruptions to the cluster and affect how it operates.
One reason for a delay in all of the cluster units joining the cluster could be the cluster units are located at different sites of if for some other reason communication is delayed between the heartbeat interfaces.
If cluster units are joining your cluster after it has started up of if it takes a while for units to join the cluster you can increase the time that the cluster units wait in the helo state. The hello state hold-down time range is 5 to 300 seconds. The hello state hold-down time default is 20 seconds.
Use the following CLI command to increase the time to wait in the helo state to 1 minute (60 seconds):
config system ha
set helo-holddown 60 end
Enabling or disabling HA heartbeat encryption and authentication
You can enable HA heartbeat encryption and authentication to encrypt and authenticate HA heartbeat packets. HA heartbeat packets should be encrypted and authenticated if the cluster interfaces that send HA heartbeat packets are also connected to your networks.
If HA heartbeat packets are not encrypted the cluster password and changes to the cluster configuration could be exposed and an attacker may be able to sniff HA packets to get cluster information. Enabling HA heartbeat message authentication prevents an attacker from creating false HA heartbeat messages. False HA heartbeat messages could affect the stability of the cluster.
HA heartbeat encryption and authentication are disabled by default. Enabling HA encryption and authentication could reduce cluster performance. Use the following CLI command to enable HA heartbeat encryption and authentication.
config system ha
set authentication enable set encryption enable
end
HA authentication and encryption uses AES-128 for encryption and SHA1 for authentication.