Configuration: Failover

About the Page

Configuration: Failover Settings allows the admin to enable and configure the built-in failover features of the Access Sever. This feature is a UCARP active/passive failure feature that can be enabled with a simple toggle button. *NOTE: UCARP failover will not function within AWS due to network restrictions.

Failover page.

Failover settings

Redundancy Model

This section allows you to enable the LAN-based redundancy model in case of server failure. Simply select the option LAN model (UCARP-based failover) to enable this feature.

Redundancy Model section

Configuring Two Nodes for LAN model Failover

This type of failover functions by the Primary and Secondary Nodes having an IP address with the same subnet. They then share a third virtual IP address within the same subnet. For more information about this configuration, read Setting up high-availability failover mode.

Install Access Server on the Secondary Node

You must install Access Server on the Secondary Node to configure LAN failover. During the initialization process, designate this node as Secondary by typing 'no' when prompted: Will this be the primary Access Server node?

Ensure that OpenSSH is installed and that access is allowed for the two nodes to communicate with each other.

Configuring LAN model Failover

Click validate after you have entered the IP addresses, SSH usernames, and passwords into the Primary Node and Secondary Node sections. You will notice that the primary and secondary nodes will have new log files in /var/log directory titled openvpnas-node.log. UCARP relies heavily on rsync to share database information between the machines; logs of the communication and any errors will be saved in these log files. Once you are satisfied with the setup, click the Commit and Restart button.

LAN Model section

Summary

Configuration: Failover Settings gives the admin the choice to enable the built in failover feature provided by Access Server. You have the option to use this feature in which you configure a secondary node with both the primary and secondary nodes having access to one another. This feature is not available using AWS due to network limitations, however, the following section on clustering will detail a failover solution that does function with AWS.