Failover only working when using dhcp on wan2

stephend2 · Feb 5, 2010, 4:42 PM

I'm working on getting a failover solution working for a customer:

I'm back at the shop now, testing on my own box and what i'm finding is if I set a static ip on wan2 which is going to be required at this customers site as the isp does not give me dhcp nor do I have the option of requesting dhcp from them, wan2 shows offline as soon as I pull wan1. however if I set wan2 to dhcp, I can then pull wan1 and the failover works properly.

I've been through all the howtos on load balancing and failover, am I missing something here?

1.2.3-RELEASE
built on Sun Dec 6 23:21:36 EST 2009

thanks in advance for any help

artbybart · Feb 11, 2010, 8:32 PM

This sounds awfully familiar….

What's your WAN1 setup to? DHCP?

Here are my findings (last response), do you see the same thing too?

http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,22473.0.html

stephend2 · Feb 15, 2010, 2:56 PM

wan1 = dhcp as well. I can't make sense of it, if both use dhcp, it works as advertised. if I use static back at the customer's location, which is my only option there, it shows the 2nd wan offline all the time. They are on one version older than I was testing with back at the shop, I'm going to upgrade them when I go back out.

At the shop I was able to get both working as advertised when I used dhcp on both connections but if I use static like I will need it configured at the customer's site, both show online until I pull the first connection to test then they both show offline.

I know there has to be a way around this, someone must know, sure haven't gotten much response though.

Any help will be appreciated for sure.

artbybart · Feb 18, 2010, 11:24 PM

I was running into the same problem. However, I finally got failover (NOT Load Balance) to work when WAN1 & WAN2 are both setup to Static IP (thanks to bob & ktims).

It'll be much easier to help you, if you post some pictures of the Static config (WAN1 & WAN2), LAN firewall rules, and load balancer pool config. This way it will be much easier to see if there's anything setup incorrectly.

Thanks.

zam · Feb 22, 2010, 9:50 AM

Hi artbybart,

Can you help me in this topic?
My PF is configured with Two Static WAN address. Everything looks fine but failover not works after disconnecting WAN1 or WAN2.
Please have a look on attached snaps of Rules, Pools and Status.
WAN1 : aa.aa.aa.aa WAN2: bb.bb.bb.bb
GW : xx.xx.xx.xx GW : yy.yy.yy.yy

Thanks

Supermule · Feb 22, 2010, 1:07 PM

How are your CARP settings setup??

zam · Feb 22, 2010, 1:09 PM

Hi,

No CARP has been configured….....

Supermule · Feb 22, 2010, 1:18 PM

And you know what CARP is???

Now you are only balancing the WAN's…..there no failover configured....

zam · Feb 22, 2010, 1:27 PM

Yes its pfSense Hardware Redundancy, I don't want the hardware redundancy.
I have added another OPT interface into my pfsense and trying to make WAN loadbalancing or Failover using OPT interface.
Unfortunately testing looks fails….
I am testing with removing Lan cable with one of the WAN interface and automatic failover not happening. Its works only after rebooting......
Is there any thing I am missing?

artbybart · Feb 22, 2010, 3:53 PM

Zam,

For starters, I'm only using the Failover feature and NOT load balancing. Therefore, in the load balancer pool I only have 2 pools setup: WAN1 failing to WAN2 and WAN2 failing to WAN1. As far as your settings are concerned, they seem fine cuz that's how i got them (with WAN1 & WAN2 gateways).

As far as rules are concerned, in the pic I see there's a rule there, which I put as the first rule in the rules table. I don't know if you've done that already or not. In addition, I have also put a similar secondary rule; except with WAN1 gateway (xx.xx.xx.xx) in the "Gateway" section.

Lastly, are you able to ping both gateways from the console (NOT the web)? I know it sounds silly, but you never know!

Hope this helps. Good luck!

zam · Feb 23, 2010, 11:20 AM

Hi artbybart,
I have edited the pools and rules as per your instruction….. Please have a look attached snaps...
I think something wrong with rules......Still no Success.........

First rule showing Lan to Default GW that is WAN1
Second rule showing Lan to Second GW that is WAN2 (yy.yy.yy.yy)

Thanks for your reply.........

stephend2 · Feb 23, 2010, 4:38 PM

I can set both to static…

the way I was doing it was to set up a single pool with WAN1 and WAN2, configured as failover then set the outgoing firewall rule to use that pool for the gateway.

as long as I had dhcp enabled on both interfaces it worked fine.

I will be on the customer's site today, will try both as static, if the cable company is willing...they usually assign static addresses via dhcp only.

zam · Mar 2, 2010, 7:59 AM

Hi
Yeah you are right stephend2…. a single Pool required and Rule must be pointed to PoolGateway.......
Its works fine for Static also ( ONLY FOR FAILOVER )

Thanks all of you for help.........
:)