ASA CX / PRSM Active/Active Failover?

Hi everyone.
I've spent my last 2 days trying to find something on this matter, but I can't find anything conclusive about it.
I'm trying to find if a 2 ASAs+CX in Active/Active configuration is supported and how to do it.
On one side, on the PRSM configuration guide for 9.2, it says "Active-Standby is the only supported high availability configuration", but I don't understand if it's just for adding devices to PRSM or that an Active/Active configuration is not supported by the CX module.
On the other hand, this forum discussion says that they are using Active/Active with CX.
So, I need to know if it will work. I know that if I use Active/Active I should use contexts, which some are Active on one ASA and others are active on the other one. I would assume that the CX module configuration should be the same for both ASAs as to support all the networks policies, but I want to know if this will work (I don't want to tell the customer that it'll work and then be stuck with an unsupported and non-working configuration).
Any advice on this? Guides maybe?
Thanks in advance.

Yes, it can be done. Off-box PRSM manages an ASA context like a "separate" ASA. That's when it's managing the ASA configuration itself - distinct from managing the CX module features.
Note however that there is an unresolved bug with CX modules and HA ASA pairs: https://tools.cisco.com/bugsearch/bug/CSCud54665
The other thing to remember - as you had alluded to - is that the CX configuration is a common one despite there being multiple contexts (with potentially differing security policies with respect to the web filtering and IPS functions they want from the CX) on the box.

Similar Messages

ASA Active/Active Failover with Redundant Guest Anchors

Does anyone know how an ASA and a guest anchor 5508 will interact if I setup an Active/Active failover pair with physical interface redundancy? I see from documentation that I can create a logical group in the ASA to bond physical interfaces together, but it doesn't describe what protocol is being used to manage that bundle. Do I assume etherchannel? If I were to create this scenario, can I run the 5508 in LAG mode?
The current failover configuration example is for PIX, and old code at that. I'm referencing an ASA/PIX guide ISBN:1-58705-819-7 beginning on page 531.
Regards,
Scott

In addition to what you have, you should add to each unit the global configuration command "failover".
We generally don't manually configure the MAC addresses in single context mode since the ASA ill automatically assign virtual MAC addresses and manage their moving to the newly active unit in the event of a failover event. Reference.

ASA active/active failover back to back

Hi,
      for HA I want to connect 4 ASA's in active/active failover with each ASA having two contexts.
The reason I need this is to separate two domains. Each domain has the ASA pair in active/active failover.
Is this possible and what would you need to do it ie a switch or two in between ?
I know you need switches or vlans to do the LAN side as the failover context needs to be in the same network. So I'm assuming you would need to do something similar between the 4 ASA's ???
Would you put 2 switches trunked together carrying two vlans, one for each context ?
          -| CTX1 |-          ?         -| CTX1 |-
          -| CTX2 |-          ?         -| CTX2 |-
               | |                                | |
          -| CTX1 |-          ?         -| CTX1 |-
          -| CTX2 |-          ?     -| CTX2 |-
Thanks in advance.

Your latest attachment is pretty close to what I was thinking.
I would add a second interface on each ASA to the switches.
So (considering the "Inside" interfaces of ASA1 for example) it would have one physical interface allocated to context 1 and connected to a port in VLAN2 and a second physical interface allocated to context 2 and connected to a port in VLAN 3.
An alternative would be to stick with a single physical interface and allocate subinterfaces (on a trunk) to each context.
You could further add redundancy by creating Etherchannels (with either the physical or logical interface approach).

Radius auth to standby ASA in Active Active Failover

Hi Everyone,
When ASA is in Active/standby failover i can ssh to standby ASA using Radius.
But when ASA is in multi context mode Active/Active failover i can not do Radius Auth to standby ASA?
Is this default behaviour?
Regards
MAhesh

I would not have thought this is the default behavior...but then again, I have never tested this. If you console into the standby context issue the command show run | in aaa. Which authentication database is indicated?
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FWSM Active/Active Failover ICMP replication

I have an issue with WS-SVC-FWM-1 module - in the active/active failover it doesn't make ICMP connection state replication with asr-groups configured on the respective interfaces. Although other connections are working just fine (asymmetric routing is verified with 'show ip cef' on the MSFC) it seems that only newer ASAs are doing ICMP replication in failover, but I couldn't find any documentation describing replication behavior for the FWSM. Can anyone
clearly describe FWSM's behavior for this?

What FWSM version are you running?
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Does VPN works in Firewall Active Active failover mode?

i want to clarify these two things!
1. Does VPN works in failover mode in Active/Active mode?
2. What about in Failover mode Active/Pasive?
Regards!

Hi,
Using an Active/Active Failover means that the Firewalls will be in Multiple Context mode. In other words virtual firewalls.
This means that you can ONLY use IPsec L2L VPN connections on the virtual firewalls if you are running 9.x software level on the firewalls. Any form of Client and Clientless VPN isnt supported in Multiple Context Mode at the moment.
Now with Active/Standby we have to make a distinction (if that was the word).
IF you run a normal Active/Standby Failover pair of ASAs that IS NOT in Multiple Context mode YOU CAN use any type of VPN the ASAs support.
IF you run a a pair of ASAs in Multiple Context Mode and in Active/Standby Mode you will naturally run into the limitation of VPN support in Multiple Context Mode and WILL NOT be able to use any other VPNs other than IPsec L2L VPN connections provided you are running 9.x software that supports it.
Hope this helps
- Jouni

ASA 8.4 Active/Standby issue

Hi,
Have configured Active/Standby and configuration has been copied fine from one device to other.
All interfaces that have been auto created (to match the original device) are showing IP addresses correctly (UP,UP)
The ASA are connected via 2 switches using trunk ports and status is UP for both trunk ports (I have connected to the same ports as in original device)
Though it was going to work when the configuration transfer was completed and the same interfaces connected. Let me know if you can suggest why interfaces on the standby ASA when active become (UP, UP) with correct IP Addresses but no traffic passes except on the failover interface.
Thanks

in fact this is the problem that even after entering command "no failover active" on the Active ASA and therefore the second ASA becomes the Active one - still no traffic works except between the interfaces of the Failover between the two ASA's. So the second ASA is yes becoming Active but it seems that no device is able to communicate with it even if all its interfaces match the primary one.
Attached is a diagram of the setup.
(Update seems that isakmp site to site link is not coming up now - other than that internal communication is working from the ASA on failover)

Active-Active Failover when different contexts monitor different interfaces

I'm trying to understand the relationship between failover groups and contexts, however it appears that the configuration is split in an way that I am having trouble understanding.
The interfaces that you actually monitor are configured PER CONTEXT e.g.
ciscoasa/ConextA(config)# monitor-interface inside
But the number of interfaces that need to fail for failover to take place is done PER FAILOVER GROUP e.g.
ciscoasa(config)# failover group 1
ciscoasa(config-fover-group)# interface-policy 1
(from the system context)
If my laptop could take it, I would spin up a test environment in GNS3, but I think the best way to ask the question is to give an example. What would happen in the following setup:
OPTION 1
OPTION 2
Thanks in advance

You would never have a scenario where, as you put it, the Admin context would monitor Gi0 and ContextB also monitor Gi0. This is because you need to assign the interface to a specific context and once it is assigned to one context it can not also be assigned to another...unless you have configured subinterfaces, then those subinterfaces can be split up and assigned to seperate contexts. But one interface or one subinterface can not be assigned to more than one context.
Now, if you have failover groups configured and an interface on one failover group dies, then only the context that the interface belongs to will failover to the standby failover group.
The following is a good article to have a read through on the Active/Active failover functions:
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/security/asa-5500-x-series-next-generation-firewalls/91336-pix-activeactive-config.html
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Activating failover config drops routing table

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

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

Cisco asa security context active/active failover

Hi,
I have two Cisco ASA 5515-X appliance running OS version 8.6. I want to configure these two appliance in multiple context mode mode.
Each ASA appliance will have two security context named "ctx1" & "ctx2".
I have to configure failover on these two ASA appliance such that "ctx1" will be active in one ASA box and "ctx2" will be active and process the traffic on second box to achieve this i will configure two failover group 1 & 2. And assign "ctx1" interfaces in failover group 1 and "ctx2" interface to group 2.
I am a reading a book on failover configuration in active/active in that below note is mentioned.
If an interface is used as the shared interface between multiple contexts, then all of those contexts need to be in the same failover redundancy group.
What this means? can someone please explain because i also want to use a shared interface which will be used by "ctx1" & "ctx2". In this case shared interface can be used in failover group 1 & 2 ?
Regards,
Nick

Yout will have to contact [email protected] or open a TAC case in order to have a new activation key generated. They can do that once they confirm your eligibility.

ASA Expert Wanted | Active Active Failover Requirment

Hello Everyone,
We have two new ASA5515-X and im currently in planning phase of its deployment. Not sure if ASA can support these requirments
Here’s what we need to have in place
A. During normal operation, wherein both ASAs and ISPs are operational.
1. By default all traffic will be routed out through ASA1's interface g1 (outside) and some defined traffic will be routed out through ASA2's interface g2 (backup)
2. All incoming ISP1 traffic will be handled by ASA1's interface g1
3. All incoming ISP2 traffic will be handled by ASA2's interface g2
B. ASA1 failure, ASA2 and both ISPs are operational
1. By default all traffic will be routed out through ASA2's intergace g1 (outside) and some defined traffic will be routed out through ASA2's interface g2 (backup)
2. All incoming ISP1 traffic will be handled by ASA2's interface g1
3. All incoming ISP2 traffic will be handled by ASA2's interface g2
C. ASA2 failure, ASA1 and both ISPs are operational
1. By default all traffic will be routed out through ASA1's intergace g1 (outside) and some defined traffic will be routed out through ASA1's interface g2 (backup)
2. All incoming ISP1 traffic will be handled by ASA1's interface g1
3. All incoming ISP2 traffic will be handled by ASA1's interface g2
D. ISP1 failure, both ASAs and ISP2 are operational
1. All traffic will be handled by ASA2's interface g2 (backup)
E. ISP2 failure, both ASAs and ISP1 are operational
1. All traffic will be handled by ASA1's interface g1 (outside)
F. Item D + ASA2 failure
1. All traffic will be handled by ASA1's interface g2 (backup)
G. Item E + ASA1 failure
1. All traffic will be handled by ASA2's interface g1 (outside)
Note:
InterfaceG1 is nameif'ed outside and is connected to ISP1
InterfaceG2 is nameif'ed backup and is connected to ISP2
Also, as a follow up, per my initial findings I need to enable multiple context to achieve what us required. But we also need a VPN redundancy and failover. But I red somewhere that VPN is not supported in multiple context mode. This is in software version 8.x I think. Does software version 9.x already supports VPN in multi context mode? If not, what approach would you suggest to address these requirement?
Here's daigram of what im thinking
Your inputs is highly appreciated
Thanks everyone !

One challenge in your scenario is to distribute the traffic to the right context. The internal network sees two gateways to the outside world and has to use the right gateway. In Active/Active that is not as easy as with Active/Standby.
the ASA9 supports VPN in A/A, but only site-to-site, no remote access.
Most of your requirements are possible with A/S which is much easier to implement. Only the part "some traffic to backup" is problematic if that is not based on the destination-address as the ASA doesn't have policy based routing.
Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPad App

ASA 5520: Configuring Active/Standby High Availability

Hi,
I am new to Cisco firewalls. We are moving from a different vendor to Cisco ASA 5520s.
I have two ASA 5520s running ASA 8.2(5). I am managing them with ASDM 6.4(5).
I am trying to setup Active/Standby using the High Availability Wizard. I have interfaces on each device setup with just an IP address and subnet mask. Primary is 10.1.70.1/24 and secondary is 10.1.70.2/24. The interfaces are connected to a switch and these interfaces are the only nodes on this switch. When I run the Wizard on the primary, configure for Active/Standby, enter the peer IP of 10.1.70.2 and I get an error message saying that the peer test failed, followed by an error saying ASDM is temporarily unable to connect to the firewall.
I tried this using a crossover cable to connect the interfaces directly with the same result.
Any ideas?
Thanks.
Dan

The command Varun is right.
Since you want to know a little bit more about this stuff, here goes a bit. Every interface will have a secondary IP and a Primary IP where the Active/Standby pair will exchange hello packes. If the hellos are not heard from mate, the the unit is delcare failed.
In case the primary is the one that gets an interface down, it will failover to the other unit, if it is the standby that has the problem, the active unit will declare the other Unit "standby failed). You will know that everything is alright when you do a show failover and the standby pair shows "Standby Ready".
For configuring it, just put a secondary IP on every interface to be monitored (If by any chance you dont have an available secondary IP for one of the interfaces you can avoid monitoring the given interface using the command no "monitor-interface nameif" where the nameif is the name of the interface without the secondary IP.
Then put the commands for failover and stateful link, the stateful link will copy the connections table (among other things) to avoid downtime while passing from One unit to another, This link should have at least the same speed as the regular data interfaces.
You can configure the failover link and the stateful link in just one interface, by just using the same name for the link, remember that this link will have a totally sepparate subnet from the ones already used in firewall.
This is the configuration
failover lan unit primary
failover lan interface failover gig0/3
failover link failover gig0/3
failover interface ip failover 10.1.0.1 255.255.255.0 standby 10.1.0.2
failover lan unit secondary
failover lan interface failover gig0/3
failover link failover gig0/3
failover interface ip failover 10.1.0.1 255.255.255.0 standby 10.1.0.2
Make sure that you can ping each other secondary/primary IP and then put the command
failover first on the primary and then on the secondary.
That would fine.
Let me know if you have further doubts.
Link for reference
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6120/products_configuration_example09186a008080dfa7.shtml
Mike

FWSM 4.0: switch from active/standby to active/active failover mode

Hello,
I have a pair of FWSM's running version 4.0 currently in active/standby failover mode, and I'd like to switch them to be active/active. Is there a documented procedure for doing this? What are the implications for any contexts switched to be primary on the FWSM that is currently acting as a standby (i.e., what kind of outage time can we expect)?
Thanks in advance,
Mike

Hi Bro
Thanks for the update, but still you'll need to create 2 contexts, each context will be ACTIVE on different Cisco ASA FW units. Hence, there will be some cut, copy and paste effort, not forgetting recabling, if that's needed. Here's a Cisco document to configure ACTIVE/ACTIVE for those who can't seem to find this document http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6120/products_configuration_example09186a0080834058.shtml#req
Conclusion: There will be some network downtime. I'm guessing 15min, if it was me :-)
P/S: If you think this comment is helpful, please do rate it nicely :-)

ASA 5550 V05 Active/passive one stop work

Hello,
I have a client, that got 2x ASA 5550 V05 and they were configured to act as active/passive but some months ago they had problems with them, so they remove them from the network.
Recently, I went there, and saw that one of the firewall (the one that was as passive) is not working, when I connect via console and reboot it I don't even see nothing, the boot starts, but suddenly, nothing shows up.
The things is that the client wants to get back to use the ASAs, so is there any way to fix that?
As an alternative we were thinking in acquire another ASA, to configure the two as active/passive again, the ASA that its working is:
ASA 5550 V05 ; Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software Version 7.2(4) ; Device Manager Version 5.2(4) ; 8 Ports GB ( 4+4) ; asa724-k8.bin
My question is, I need an exactly the same model ASA?
I was thinking in put one ASA5555-2SSD120-K9. That would work?
Or should I try anything else? I don't have many skills with ASA specially troubleshooting it.
Thanks in advance

Hi Diogo,
The issue related to failed firewall could be related to a hardware issue, you may get some outputs from console session when the ASA is booting up. Try to boot up the firewall again, if this doesn´t work then you should open a TAC case so they can help you replacing the firewall(the ASA needs to be under an active contract).
Regarding ASA model and failover, both firewalls must be the same model(hardware).
See the below requirements for failover to work:
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/security/pix-500-series-security-appliances/77809-pixfailover.html#req
Regards,
Harvey.
Please rate if this is correct answer.

ASA 5550 Transparent Active/Standby Configuration

Hello guys!
I am in the process of adding a new ASA 5550 as a standby box to an existing ASA 5550 running on transparent mode. Both are on version ASA 8.0(4) and ASDM 6.2(1). I have set the new ASA 5550 to transparent mode. The configurations are the following for the HA:
Primary ASA:
interface GigabitEthernet1/3
description LAN Failover Interface
media-type sfp
failover
failover lan unit primary
failover lan interface failover GigabitEthernet1/3
failover interface ip failover 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0 standby 192.168.1.2
Secondary ASA:
interface GigabitEthernet1/3
description LAN Failover Interface
failover
failover lan unit secondary
failover lan interface failover GigabitEthernet1/3
failover interface ip failover 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0 standby 192.168.1.2
My questions are the following:
1. The management ip address is different than the ip used for the failover link. Since the firewalls are on transparent mode, does the failover ip needs to be the same as the management ip address?
2. Does any other additional config is needed for HA to work for basic active/stand-by failover?
3. Wich is the best method to add the second box without disrupting the active box?
Thanks in advance guys!

Hi Nephtali,
1. The aswer is no, it can be different.
2. You can optionaly add statefull failover config.
3. Issue the failover command on the primary device first, and then issue it on the secondary device. After you issue the failover command on the secondary device, the secondary device immediately pulls the configuration from the primary device and sets itself as standby. The primary ASA stays up and passes traffic normally and marks itself as the active device. From that point on, whenever a failure occurs on the active device, the standby device comes up as active.
Link to a config example:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6120/products_configuration_example09186a0080aefd11.shtml#Reg
Regards
Mariusz

ASA CX / PRSM Active/Active Failover?

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