Activating failover config drops routing table

Question

I'm attempting to configure two ASA 5520 for active/standby failover.
When I enter the “failover” command to enable the config on the primary ASA, the entire routing table disappears.
There is no routing process running, only static routes are configured.
Is this an expected behavior of the failover process and if so, how long should I wait for the routes to come back?
Is there a document somewhere explaining this behavior?
I’ve searched all day but couldn’t find anything that came close to explain this.
If this is not normal, what could be causing this to happen?
Thanks

Answer 1

Originally, both primary and secondary were configured for failover.
At this point I'm only trying to understand why the rounting table is cleared so the secondary is turned off.
Is it an expected result to have your routing cleared when you enable failover?
I've waited only ~30 seconds for the routes to come back. Maybe I'm not waiting long enough, but I haven't seen in all the documents I've read that lost of traffic should be expected when Failover is enabled.
hfn-asa5520-01# sh route
Codes: C - connected, S - static, I - IGRP, R - RIP, M - mobile, B - BGP
       D - EIGRP, EX - EIGRP external, O - OSPF, IA - OSPF inter area
       N1 - OSPF NSSA external type 1, N2 - OSPF NSSA external type 2
       E1 - OSPF external type 1, E2 - OSPF external type 2, E - EGP
       i - IS-IS, L1 - IS-IS level-1, L2 - IS-IS level-2, ia - IS-IS inter area
       * - candidate default, U - per-user static route, o - ODR
       P - periodic downloaded static route
Gateway of last resort is 62.117.51.1 to network 0.0.0.0
S    172.26.0.0 255.255.0.0 [1/0] via 172.26.1.252, inside
S    172.26.30.30 255.255.255.255 [1/0] via 62.117.51.1, outside
C    172.26.1.0 255.255.255.0 is directly connected, inside
S    172.26.30.31 255.255.255.255 [1/0] via 62.117.51.1, outside
C    62.117.51.0 255.255.255.0 is directly connected, outside
C    10.1.1.0 255.255.255.0 is directly connected, dmz
S    10.21.21.0 255.255.255.0 [1/0] via 172.26.1.250, inside
C    10.255.255.0 255.255.255.252 is directly connected, Failover
C    192.168.168.0 255.255.255.0 is directly connected, Flora
S*   0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 [1/0] via 62.117.51.1, outside
hfn-asa5520-01# sh failover
Failover Off
Failover unit Primary
Failover LAN Interface: Failover Management0/0 (Failed - No Switchover)
Unit Poll frequency 1 seconds, holdtime 15 seconds
Interface Poll frequency 5 seconds, holdtime 25 seconds
Interface Policy 1
Monitored Interfaces 3 of 160 maximum
hfn-asa5520-01# sh failover
Failover Off
Failover unit Primary
Failover LAN Interface: Failover Management0/0 (Failed - No Switchover)
Unit Poll frequency 1 seconds, holdtime 15 seconds
Interface Poll frequency 5 seconds, holdtime 25 seconds
Interface Policy 1
Monitored Interfaces 3 of 160 maximum
hfn-asa5520-01# conf t
hfn-asa5520-01(config)# failover
hfn-asa5520-01(config)# sh failover
Failover On
Failover unit Primary
Failover LAN Interface: Failover Management0/0 (Failed - No Switchover)
Unit Poll frequency 1 seconds, holdtime 15 seconds
Interface Poll frequency 5 seconds, holdtime 25 seconds
Interface Policy 1
Monitored Interfaces 3 of 160 maximum
Version: Ours 8.4(3), Mate Unknown
Last Failover at: 12:23:12 PDT May 21 2012
        This host: Primary - Negotiation
                Active time: 116 (sec)
                slot 0: ASA5520 hw/sw rev (2.0/8.4(3)) status (Up Sys)
                  Interface outside (62.117.51.100): No Link (Waiting)
                  Interface inside (172.26.1.251): No Link (Waiting)
                  Interface dmz (10.1.1.1): No Link (Waiting)
                  Interface Flora (192.168.168.1): No Link (Not-Monitored)
                slot 1: empty
        Other host: Secondary - Not Detected
                Active time: 0 (sec)
                slot 0: empty
                  Interface outside (62.117.51.99): Unknown (Waiting)
                  Interface inside (172.26.1.249): Unknown (Waiting)
                  Interface dmz (10.1.1.2): Unknown (Waiting)
                  Interface Flora (192.168.168.2): Unknown (Not-Monitored)
                slot 1: empty
Stateful Failover Logical Update Statistics
        Link : Failover Management0/0 (Failed)
        Stateful Obj    xmit       xerr       rcv        rerr     
        General         0          0          0          0        
        sys cmd         0          0          0          0        
        up time         0          0          0          0        
        RPC services    0          0          0          0        
        TCP conn        0          0          0          0        
        UDP conn        0          0          0          0        
        ARP tbl         0          0          0          0        
        Xlate_Timeout   0          0          0          0        
        IPv6 ND tbl     0          0          0          0        
        VPN IKEv1 SA    0          0          0          0        
        VPN IKEv1 P2    0          0          0          0        
        VPN IKEv2 SA    0          0          0          0        
        VPN IKEv2 P2    0          0          0          0        
        VPN CTCP upd    0          0          0          0        
        VPN SDI upd     0          0          0          0        
        VPN DHCP upd    0          0          0          0        
        SIP Session     0          0          0          0        
        Route Session   0          0          0          0        
        User-Identity   0          0          0          0        
        Logical Update Queue Information
                        Cur     Max     Total
        Recv Q:         0       0       0
        Xmit Q:         0       0       0
hfn-asa5520-01(config)# sh route
Codes: C - connected, S - static, I - IGRP, R - RIP, M - mobile, B - BGP
       D - EIGRP, EX - EIGRP external, O - OSPF, IA - OSPF inter area
       N1 - OSPF NSSA external type 1, N2 - OSPF NSSA external type 2
       E1 - OSPF external type 1, E2 - OSPF external type 2, E - EGP
       i - IS-IS, L1 - IS-IS level-1, L2 - IS-IS level-2, ia - IS-IS inter area
       * - candidate default, U - per-user static route, o - ODR
       P - periodic downloaded static route
Gateway of last resort is not set
C    10.255.255.0 255.255.255.252 is directly connected, Failover
hfn-asa5520-01(config)# no failover