Step 1: Creating or joining a high availability cluster

Create a cluster

If this option is selected, the firewall will be prepared to receive other firewalls and will add itself to the cluster.

Join a cluster

If this option is selected, the appliance will attempt to connect to the firewall with the IP address defined during the creation of the cluster. As such, this second firewall will retrieve information from the first and synchronize with it. The cluster therefore comprises two firewalls: when the first firewall fails, the second will take over transparently. NOTE At the end of the wizard, the appliance will be rebooted. Once the reboot is complete, the appliance will be part of the cluster, and therefore no longer exists as an entity, but as a member of the cluster. WARNING If you choose to “join” a cluster, it implies that you have already created one beforehand, and have selected the option “Create a cluster” and have performed the necessary configuration to set it up on the first firewall.

WARNING
It is important to avoid creating a cluster twice, as this would mean that you would be setting up two high availability clusters, each containing a firewall, and not a high availability cluster containing 2 firewalls.

NOTE
A member of a cluster can be forced to be the active firewall, even if members of the group have differing firmware versions.