HA heartbeat and communication between cluster units

HA heartbeat and communication between cluster units

The HA heartbeat keeps cluster units communicating with each other. The heartbeat consists of hello packets that are sent at regular intervals by the heartbeat interface of all cluster units. These hello packets describe the state of the cluster unit and are used by other cluster units to keep all cluster units synchronized.

HA heartbeat packets are non-TCP packets that use Ethertype values 0x8890, 0x8891, and 0x8890. The default time interval between HA heartbeats is 200 ms. The FGCP uses link-local IP4 addresses in the 169.254.0.x range for HA heartbeat interface IP addresses.

For best results, isolate the heartbeat devices from your user networks by connecting the heartbeat devices to a separate switch that is not connected to any network. If the cluster consists of two FortiGate units you can connect the heartbeat device interfaces directly using a crossover cable. Heartbeat packets contain sensitive information about the cluster configuration. Heartbeat packets may also use a considerable amount of network bandwidth. For these reasons, it is preferable to isolate heartbeat packets from your user networks.

On startup, a FortiGate unit configured for HA operation broadcasts HA heartbeat hello packets from its HA heartbeat interface to find other FortiGate units configured to operate in HA mode. If two or more FortiGate units operating in HA mode connect with each other, they compare HA configurations (HA mode, HA password, and HA group ID). If the HA configurations match, the units negotiate to form a cluster.

While the cluster is operating, the HA heartbeat confirms that all cluster units are functioning normally. The heartbeat also reports the state of all cluster units, including the communication sessions that they are processing.


Heartbeat interfaces

A heartbeat interface is an Ethernet network interface in a cluster that is used by the FGCP for HA heartbeat communications between cluster units.

To change the HA heartbeat configuration go to System > HA and select the FortiGate interfaces to use as HA heartbeat interfaces.

Do not use a switch port for the HA heartbeat traffic. This configuration is not supported. From the CLI enter the following command to make port4 and port5 HA heartbeat interfaces and give both

interfaces a heartbeat priority of 150:


config system ha

set hbdev port4 150 port5 150 end

The following example shows how to change the default heartbeat interface configuration so that the port4 and port1 interfaces can be used for HA heartbeat communication and to give the port4 interface the highest heartbeat priority so that port4 is the preferred HA heartbeat interface.


config system ha

set hbdev port4 100 port1 50 end

By default, for most FortiGate models two interfaces are configured to be heartbeat interfaces. You can change the heartbeat interface configuration as required. For example you can select additional or different heartbeat interfaces. You can also select only one heartbeat interface.

In addition to selecting the heartbeat interfaces, you also set the Priority for each heartbeat interface. In all cases, the heartbeat interface with the highest priority is used for all HA heartbeat communication. If the interface fails or becomes disconnected, the selected heartbeat interface that has the next highest priority handles all heartbeat communication.

If more than one heartbeat interface has the same priority, the heartbeat interface with the highest priority that is also highest in the heartbeat interface list is used for all HA heartbeat communication. If this interface fails or becomes disconnected, the selected heartbeat interface with the highest priority that is next highest in the list handles all heartbeat communication.

The default heartbeat interface configuration sets the priority of two heartbeat interfaces to 50. You can accept the default heartbeat interface configuration if one or both of the default heartbeat interfaces are connected. You can select different heartbeat interfaces, select more heartbeat interfaces and change heartbeat priorities according to your requirements.

For the HA cluster to function correctly, you must select at least one heartbeat interface and this interface of all of the cluster units must be connected together. If heartbeat communication is interrupted and cannot failover to a second heartbeat interface, the cluster units will not be able to communicate with each other and more than one cluster unit may become a primary unit. As a result the cluster stops functioning normally because multiple devices on the network may be operating as primary units with the same IP and MAC addresses creating a kind if split brain scenario.


0. The higher the number the higher the priority.

In most cases you can maintain the default heartbeat interface configuration as long as you can connect the heartbeat interfaces together. Configuring HA heartbeat interfaces is the same for virtual clustering and for standard HA clustering.

You can enable heartbeat communications for physical interfaces, but not for VLAN subinterfaces, IPsec VPN interfaces, redundant interfaces, or for 802.3ad aggregate interfaces. You cannot select these types of interfaces in the heartbeat interface list.

Selecting more heartbeat interfaces increases reliability. If a heartbeat interface fails or is disconnected, the HAheartbeat fails over to the next heartbeat interface.

You can select up to 8 heartbeat interfaces. This limit only applies to FortiGate units with more than 8 physical interfaces.

HA heartbeat traffic can use a considerable amount of network bandwidth. If possible, enable HA heartbeat traffic on interfaces used only for HA heartbeat traffic or on interfaces connected to less busy networks.


- FortinetGuru YouTube Channel
- FortiSwitch Training Videos