Netgate Discussion Forum
    • Categories
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Search
    • Register
    • Login

    High Avail secondary node IPs - How to find it

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
    45 Posts 4 Posters 2.3k Views
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • M
      michmoor LAYER 8 Rebel Alliance @michmoor
      last edited by michmoor

      Ok...That fixed it. It was the outbound NAT rule requirement

      Backup node is accessible over VPN and boy..........does not look good.

      I also see packages not synced over - such as SUDO, OpenVPN client export, mtr...
      Firewall rules are there but things appear missing.

      d83be4bd-6b91-476c-b239-25829104ee87-image.png

      Firewall: NetGate,Palo Alto-VM,Juniper SRX
      Routing: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
      Switching: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
      Wireless: Unifi, Aruba IAP
      JNCIP,CCNP Enterprise

      S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • S
        SteveITS Galactic Empire @michmoor
        last edited by

        @michmoor I was going to say, disconnect the primary and log in using the shared IP. :)

        Package installs do not automatically install on the secondary. Package config may sync if the package supports it.

        Pre-2.7.2/23.09: Only install packages for your version, or risk breaking it. Select your branch in System/Update/Update Settings.
        When upgrading, allow 10-15 minutes to restart, or more depending on packages and device speed.
        Upvote 👍 helpful posts!

        M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • M
          michmoor LAYER 8 Rebel Alliance @SteveITS
          last edited by

          @SteveITS Full disclousre. This is my second time working on a HA configuration on pfsense so the nuances I'm not familiar with namely package sync.

          So on the standby node i have to manual install the same set of packages? Thats no problem i just wanted to be clear.

          And get this....The secondary had the pfSync interface using WAN while the primary had the pfSync interface using the dedicated interface labeled HA

          So clearly this can work but its so weird.

          Firewall: NetGate,Palo Alto-VM,Juniper SRX
          Routing: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
          Switching: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
          Wireless: Unifi, Aruba IAP
          JNCIP,CCNP Enterprise

          S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • S
            SteveITS Galactic Empire @michmoor
            last edited by

            @michmoor yeah…agree with your label.

            https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/highavailability/settings.html

            There is state sync and one-way config sync. The latter I’d think could be allowed on WAN by firewall rules, but why???

            Yes install packages yourself.

            Pre-2.7.2/23.09: Only install packages for your version, or risk breaking it. Select your branch in System/Update/Update Settings.
            When upgrading, allow 10-15 minutes to restart, or more depending on packages and device speed.
            Upvote 👍 helpful posts!

            M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • M
              michmoor LAYER 8 Rebel Alliance @SteveITS
              last edited by

              @SteveITS
              One last thing. Im using IPsec here and I'm testing failover. So far it does failover to the Backup node but i noticed the firewall rules are not syncing to my VTI interface.

              According to the documentation i must create the interface manually which i understand but shouldn't the firewall rules come over as well?

              Firewall: NetGate,Palo Alto-VM,Juniper SRX
              Routing: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
              Switching: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
              Wireless: Unifi, Aruba IAP
              JNCIP,CCNP Enterprise

              V 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • V
                viragomann @michmoor
                last edited by

                @michmoor
                Yes, presumed you have configured the VTI interface on the backup node as well.

                M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • M
                  michmoor LAYER 8 Rebel Alliance @viragomann
                  last edited by

                  @viragomann yep. Same interface assignment

                  Firewall: NetGate,Palo Alto-VM,Juniper SRX
                  Routing: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
                  Switching: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
                  Wireless: Unifi, Aruba IAP
                  JNCIP,CCNP Enterprise

                  M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • M
                    michmoor LAYER 8 Rebel Alliance @michmoor
                    last edited by

                    Im really not understanding why my VTI interfaces are not syncing up.
                    The interface assignments are the exact same

                    Master
                    49472093-4e44-4359-9ff3-c9c625924dce-image.png

                    Backup
                    6e4bb5ba-48eb-4626-8525-7cffd66eed28-image.png

                    de6128e4-e354-463c-8a36-6e6ca7b4fbc6-image.png

                    Yet the only interface with firewall rules not syncing is the VTI. Very strange behavior.

                    Firewall: NetGate,Palo Alto-VM,Juniper SRX
                    Routing: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
                    Switching: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
                    Wireless: Unifi, Aruba IAP
                    JNCIP,CCNP Enterprise

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • stephenw10S
                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                      last edited by

                      Is it ipsec1 on the primary too or ipsec0?

                      Yeah sync can work between any interfaces but it's much better to use a dedicated sync interface if you can.

                      M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • M
                        michmoor LAYER 8 Rebel Alliance @stephenw10
                        last edited by

                        @stephenw10 ipsec1 on both. I shared pictures above

                        Firewall: NetGate,Palo Alto-VM,Juniper SRX
                        Routing: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
                        Switching: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
                        Wireless: Unifi, Aruba IAP
                        JNCIP,CCNP Enterprise

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • stephenw10S
                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                          last edited by

                          Is the IPSec filter option set to VTI mode on both nodes?

                          M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • M
                            michmoor LAYER 8 Rebel Alliance @stephenw10
                            last edited by

                            @stephenw10 Yep it sure is.

                            Firewall: NetGate,Palo Alto-VM,Juniper SRX
                            Routing: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
                            Switching: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
                            Wireless: Unifi, Aruba IAP
                            JNCIP,CCNP Enterprise

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • stephenw10S
                              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                              last edited by

                              Hmm, well it's possible to set individual rules to not sync. That might have been done for some reason.

                              M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • stephenw10S stephenw10 referenced this topic on
                              • M
                                michmoor LAYER 8 Rebel Alliance @stephenw10
                                last edited by

                                @stephenw10

                                I thought the same as well but the "No XMLRPC Sync" checkbox is unchecked.

                                Logs show no errors. I even tried re-creating the interface and still no luck

                                081b3fcf-0b63-4561-b86b-af67a9d7492c-image.png

                                Firewall: NetGate,Palo Alto-VM,Juniper SRX
                                Routing: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
                                Switching: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
                                Wireless: Unifi, Aruba IAP
                                JNCIP,CCNP Enterprise

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • stephenw10S
                                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                  last edited by

                                  No error on the Secondary either?

                                  M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • M
                                    michmoor LAYER 8 Rebel Alliance @stephenw10
                                    last edited by michmoor

                                    @stephenw10

                                    Figured it out.
                                    The primary has OPT3 - IPsec1
                                    The secondary has OPT4 - IPsec1

                                    I was just looking at the IPsec1 identifier but clearly the OPT has to match. So i deleted the interface on the secondary and made sure that when it got recreated the OPT identifier matched. Once that's done Rules synced across.

                                    The last thing I'm dealing with now is IPsec failover is very slow. An outage of over 3-4 minutes. CARP WAN address is being used but i do notice in my logs that the firewall keeps trying to initiate a connection using the WAN address and not the WAN CARP address. Is this normal?

                                    Eventually, the firewalls speak and all is well.

                                    Firewall: NetGate,Palo Alto-VM,Juniper SRX
                                    Routing: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
                                    Switching: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
                                    Wireless: Unifi, Aruba IAP
                                    JNCIP,CCNP Enterprise

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                    • stephenw10S
                                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                      last edited by

                                      What are they connected to?

                                      If the IPSec is on the CARP VIP at this end the secondary should start trying to connect as soon as it fails over but the remote side will have to time-out before starts trying.

                                      M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • M
                                        michmoor LAYER 8 Rebel Alliance @stephenw10
                                        last edited by

                                        @stephenw10 Remote side is me. How do i speed up the cutover? Is there a way?

                                        Firewall: NetGate,Palo Alto-VM,Juniper SRX
                                        Routing: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
                                        Switching: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
                                        Wireless: Unifi, Aruba IAP
                                        JNCIP,CCNP Enterprise

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • stephenw10S
                                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                          last edited by

                                          So remote is a mobile IPSec client?

                                          You can change the dpd settings for the client so it times out faster.

                                          M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • M
                                            michmoor LAYER 8 Rebel Alliance @stephenw10
                                            last edited by

                                            @stephenw10 This is an IPsec site2site

                                            Firewall: NetGate,Palo Alto-VM,Juniper SRX
                                            Routing: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
                                            Switching: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
                                            Wireless: Unifi, Aruba IAP
                                            JNCIP,CCNP Enterprise

                                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                            • First post
                                              Last post
                                            Copyright 2025 Rubicon Communications LLC (Netgate). All rights reserved.