Basic Configuration Steps of Active
Basic Configuration Steps of Active
Basic Configuration Steps of Active
The basic configuration steps for the following topology are documented in this solution.
Minimum software and hardware requirements for configuring Active/ Passive NSRP:
For more information on the software and hardware requirements for NSRP, refer to KB11432.
SOLUTION:
For assistance with configuring a pair of firewalls for NSRP, follow the steps below.
These instructions were performed on a SSG-500. The same concept applies to the other models
that support NSRP; the difference being the interface notation or dedicated HA port.
Perform basic configuration on Firewall-A. Bind the interfaces to the zones desired, and
configure an IP address on the interfaces.
Start configuring NSRP by choosing the interface(s) for HA. In our example, it is eth0/4.
For more information on assigning the HA ports, refer to KB11296.
set interface ethernet0/4 zone HA
Important: Other NSRP firewall pairs on the same segment must have a different set of cluster
ids.
Once the cluster id is set to a value, all the security interfaces will become part of the VSD-group
0, by default.
To define a single name for all cluster members, type the following CLI command:
set nsrp cluster name <name_str>
Use the cluster name when configuring the SNMP host name for the Juniper firewall device (set
snmp name name_str) and when defining the common name in a PKCS10 certificate request
file.
By adding the monitor command we will monitor the physical state of the interface eth0/1 and
eth0/3. In the event that either one of the interfaces goes down, Firewall-A will initiate a fail
over to Firewall-B, and Firewall-B will continue to pass traffic.
NOTE: Only specify the interfaces that have an active link. Otherwise, the firewall will go to
the (I) Inoperable state; for more information, see KB11327.
Configure NTP command, if applicable. Are your firewalls configured with an NTP
(Network Time Protocol) server?
Synchronize the configurations from the Backup firewall. On Firewall-B, enter the
following CLI command:
firewall-B-> exec nsrp sync global-config save
The following will be reported shortly after you enter the above command:
Reset Firewall-B.
IMPORTANT: If you are prompted to save the configuration after you enter the reset command,
answer n (No). Then, proceed with the reboot by answering y (Yes).
firewall-B(B)-> reset
firewall-B(B)-> Configuration modified. Save? [y]/n n
firewall-B(B)-> System reset. Are you sure? y/[n] y
After the boxes have rebooted, synchronize the RTOs (Run-Time Objects):
firewall-A(M)-> set nsrp rto-mirror sync
After entering the "rto-mirror" sync, the Master and backup firewall's will start to synchronize
the real time sessions informations. On the master device, the console will have the following:
firewall-A(M)-> Begin to sync all run-time-object to peer ...Done
firewall-A(M)->
On the backup device, the console will have the following:
firewall-B(B)-> configuration in sync (local checksum 1545829970 == remote
checksum 145829970)
Received all run-time-object from peer.
NOTE: Steps 11 and 12 can be performed before step 7, however, for simplicity, they are
performed at this point.
[Recommended] Configure priority and preempt for selecting which device in the
cluster should be the preferred master:
The firewall with the lowest priority will be the master. By default the ScreenOS sets the priority
to 100. This can be modified by the following command to select the Master device:
firewall-A(M)-> set nsrp vsd-group id 0 priority 50
To set the preempt option, enter the following command always on the device which has the
lowest priority value. You should add this command on only one device, the device that you
want to be always Master:
firewall-A(M)-> set nsrp vsd-group id 0 preempt
In the case of a failover scenario, let's say Firewall-B becomes the master. Later if the original
Master, Firewall-A (which has a lower priority and preempt configured) recovers, Firewall-A
will take back the Master role. For more information on the priority and preempt commands,
refer to KB11373.