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    HA between physical and vm

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved HA/CARP/VIPs
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    • M
      moosport
      last edited by

      I have 1 WAN in a pfsense vm. Planning on adding a physical pfsense box and making the vm the 2nd node in HA.

      Do I need another NIC on each machine for heartbeat?

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      • S
        SteveITS Galactic Empire
        last edited by

        The heartbeats are on all interfaces. The sync interface is a third NIC. Note that syncing states only works if the interfaces are the same type: https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/book/highavailability/pfsync-overview.html#pfsync-and-physical-interfaces

        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!

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        • M
          moosport
          last edited by

          The document states identical “hardware interfaces”. Does need to be identical NIC or if identical NIC chipset will suffice?

          If identical hardware really means the machine, having both nodes as vm on different hosts should provided sufficient abstract for pfsync work.

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          • S
            SteveITS Galactic Empire
            last edited by

            @moosport said in HA between physical and vm:

            Does need to be identical NIC or if identical NIC chipset will suffice

            It has to use the same driver. Otherwise CARP will work for failover but firewall states won't sync so connections will drop.

            There is a discussion in that area of the book about using LAGG groups across different hardware, but LAGGs have other down sides like not working with traffic shaping.

            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!

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