as I now found out I was wrong that CARP MAC is randonly calculated every reboot. The CARD MAC always is "00:00:5E:00:01:<vhid>" We are going to check with global admin whether we can get a static VHID on WAN and therefore register the resulting CARP MAC.</vhid>

Have to probably see a network diagram, complete will full IP addressing, subnets, and gateways and a complete description of the traffic that is causing the "storm" preferably with a packet capture. There should be at least four addresses on the WAN network: Upstream gateway CARP VIP Primary WAN interface Secondary WAN interface Traffic should be able to freely flow between any of those interfaces without issue. No, it is not normal to use Automatic outbound NAT in an HA configuration but it should not, in and of itself, cause the issues you say you're seeing unless something else is wrong.

Hi, I tried your suggestion. Same problem. I also tried an outbound NAT rule "WAN, any, "WAN Interface IP/32" (as only networks can be entered) any "Public CARP VIP"  (which I think is essentially the same as what you are saying). Both where the top-most outbound NAT rule. What I see with both NAT rules in TCPdump are icmp-echo-requests leaving as the CARP Public IP  (so that's good as it hits the new NAT rule) but nothing comes back. To my amazement, I also still see icmp requests leaving for the same target (router at provider) with source IP 10.99.99.204 (the WAN interface of the Master). These are not mine and I guess the Gateway pinger sends them every 1 second. So I see two source-addresses when pinging the provider's device (which is my def.gateway): "CARP Public IP" (82.136.xx.yy)  to  "Provider's router" (82.136.xx.zz)  but only when I ping it myself directly from the Firewall's native console (i'll call these "my pings") "Master WAN IP  (the 10.99. address) to "Provider's router" every second, I guess from the gateway-check-pinger-thingy. (tcpdump sees no return packets aka icmp-echo replies) raw output: IP 82.136.xx.yy > 82.136.xx.zz: ICMP echo request  (my pings" IP 10.99.99.204 > 82.136.xx.zz: ICMP echo request  (gateway checker thingy pings, 1 every second) The latter I don't understand. I created that outbound NAT rule and when I do pings (the "my pings"), it translates them and then sends them out.  But the gateway-check-pinger  seems to ignore NAT rules as it's icmp-echo-request packets have the physical WAN IP of the master as the source IP ???? The end-result is that pings now work. Sometimes… So pings work for a couple of minutes, then die for a while, then pings work again, die again. The intervals are random. I can ping the providers router now and some devices inside their network but not beyond. When I revert to a non-CARP setup for the WAN interface, as described in my OP, all is 100% good again. I'm totally out of ideas guys.

No you are trying to game HA. It sounds like the port forward on the secondary is working but the target is sending its reply traffic back to its default gateway - the primary. You can probably make this sort of work by using outbound NAT on the LAN interface so all traffic appears to come from LAN Address so the replies are same-subnet. If you have Multi-WAN I wouldn't do HA at all. I would use one node for both WANs and be sure to keep a regular copy of the configuration backed up and keep the other node as a warm or cold spare. That or get the proper WAN subnets (/29 or larger) and configure HA correctly.

Depends on what you are configuring/doing. You generally want services/VPNs to listen on CARP VIPs. You generally want outbound NAT to be a CARP VIP. You generally want inside clients to use a CARP VIP as their gateway and DNS server (if it's providing DNS).

If you have a reproducible case, please open a report at redmine.pfsense.org outlining the expected behavior, the steps to reproduce, and the actual behavior.

??? :-[ :-\ I found the problem. One server has access via HTTP and another HTTPS, this was the problem with synchronization. So I changed the two to HTTPS, normalized. Thanks all!

I had a very good chance. I have found a site that provides useful information this good.

Yes I can ping that specific IP. I have checked the firewall and it is completely open. I even created specific rules along with everything open, Tried copying the same rule that was there before the upgrade (completely open) it seems to be just that port since I can connect/test port 80 but I don;t want to change the GUI connection from being unsecure. I checked the tables and no lockouts either. Thanks for the help/suggestions

Perfect. Thanks for reporting back. DHCP servers (if any) are all normal/normal?

@Derelict: WAN Interface: Static IPv4 10.10.75.251/29 Gateway: x.x.x.17 Having your gateway not included in the interface subnet is an odd configuration. Or is the interface really a /24 and you can only use that /29 out of it? Sorry, I doesn't mentioned it! The gateway is a public IP address, 62.x.x.17 and "use non local gateway" is set. Outbound NAT is also set. I read all the threads here about this setup with version > 2.2 and someone mentioned, that the mask on the WAN interfaces should be the same as the public networks. I changed it to /24, master 10.10.75.251/24, slave 10.10.75.252/24 but there is no change. Master to Slave runs perfectly with only some lost packets, Slave to Master lets the default gateway missing on master. If I add it manually with route add default 62.x.x.17 all is up immediatly. I have done some debugging on console: a) console on master enter persistent CARP maintenance mode on MASTER failover to slave, all connections established default gw lost on master (netstat -r) leave persistent CARP maintenance mode on MASTER all interfaces and services "green" only default gw lost route add default 62.x.x.17 all is up b) console on master ifconfig ibg4 down (WAN interface) failover to slave, all connections established default gw present on master ifconfig ibg4 up go back to master as active all interfaces and services "green" only default gw lost route add default 62.x.x.17 all is up c) console on master sysctl net.inet.carp.demotion=250 failover to slave, all connections established default gw present on master sysctl net.inet.carp.demotion=-250 go back to master as active all interfaces and services "green" default gw present on master!!! all is up I tried c) several times and pf always switches perfectly between master and slave without lost of any connection. If I simulate a lost WAN interface with b) the default gw will be present. The default gw not lost during failover, but when the Master takes over again. If I set the Master in maintenance mode a) , the default gw is lost immadiatley. What are the differences between these scenaries, so that only c) function correctly? Tom

Following up on this topic.  I never got anywhere with it.  After reading many posts which suggested solutions such as utilizing STP to handle the potential issues that would arise from the mac address changes on the same physical interfaces - loops, etc, I've had to abandon the idea of using pfSense as a high availability solution when bridging. There just doesn't seem to be a way to really handle it without complex networking and/or adding more hardware across each side.  pfSense seems to need a bridge-specific solution to make this work without significant effort or alteration in my environment - so I've had to end the search and just use pfSense as a router as well.

To start, your provider is probably not CARP compatible, or it would likely be working. When it comes to CARP VIPs and ISPs there are two general principles that they must support. CARP advertisements egress sourced from the CARP MAC address. This performs two tasks: The switch sees the CARP MAC address and adds it to its MAC address table The BACKUP CARP node sees the advertisement and does not switch to MASTER The ISP, having traffic for the CARP VIP address does an ARP request. The pfSense WAN responds to the ARP "WHO HAS" from the interface MAC address but says the address IS AT the CARP MAC. This directs traffic from upstream to the CARP VIP to the CARP MAC address which has previously been installed in the switches MAC address table by virtue of the CARP advertisements. Upstream has to support multiple MAC addresses and multicast for CARP to function. ISP gear does some silly-ass crap. Especially residential gear. There has to be solid layer 2 between the two CARP nodes and the upstream.