Applies To:
Show VersionsBIG-IP AAM
- 13.1.5, 13.1.4, 13.1.3, 13.1.1, 13.1.0
BIG-IP APM
- 13.1.5, 13.1.4, 13.1.3, 13.1.1, 13.1.0
BIG-IP Link Controller
- 13.1.5, 13.1.4, 13.1.3, 13.1.1, 13.1.0
BIG-IP Analytics
- 13.1.5, 13.1.4, 13.1.3, 13.1.1, 13.1.0
BIG-IP LTM
- 13.1.5, 13.1.4, 13.1.3, 13.1.1, 13.1.0
BIG-IP AFM
- 13.1.5, 13.1.4, 13.1.3, 13.1.1, 13.1.0
BIG-IP PEM
- 13.1.5, 13.1.4, 13.1.3, 13.1.1, 13.1.0
BIG-IP DNS
- 13.1.5, 13.1.4, 13.1.3, 13.1.1, 13.1.0
BIG-IP ASM
- 13.1.5, 13.1.4, 13.1.3, 13.1.1, 13.1.0
About system fail-safe
When you configure system fail-safe, the BIG-IP® system monitors various hardware components, as well as the heartbeat of various system services, and can take action if the system detects a heartbeat failure.
You can configure the BIG-IP system to monitor the switch board component and then take some action if the BIG-IP system detects a failure. Using the BIG-IP Configuration utility, you can specify the action that you want the BIG-IP system to take when the component fails. The BIG-IP system can perform these actions:
- Reboot the BIG-IP system.
- Restart all system services.
- Go offline.
- Go offline and cancel the TMM service.
- Fail over and restart TMM.
Configuring system fail-safe
About gateway fail-safe
One type of network failure detection is known as gateway fail-safe, which applies to redundant system configurations only. Gateway fail-safe monitors traffic between an active BIG-IP® system in a device group and a pool containing a gateway router. You configure the gateway fail-safe feature if you want the BIG-IP system to take an action, such as fail over, when some number of gateway routers in a pool of routers becomes unreachable.
You can configure gateway fail-safe using the BIG-IP Configuration utility. Configuring gateway fail-safe means designating a pool of routers as a gateway fail-safe pool. When you designate a pool as a gateway fail-safe pool, you provide this information:
- The name of the pool.
- The name of a BIG-IP device in a device group (either the local device or any other device group member).
- The minimum number of gateway pool members that must be available to avoid the designated action.
- The action that the BIG-IP system should take when the number of available gateway pool members drops below the designated threshold. The default value is Failover.
After you configure gateway fail-safe, by specifying an action of Failover, the named BIG-IP device (and only that device) fails over to another device group member whenever the number of available pool members falls below the specified threshold. The BIG-IP system only monitors the gateway pool assigned to the local device and does not monitor gateway pools assigned to peer devices. When viewing the status of a peer gateway pool, you will observe an unchecked status (a blue square in the BIG-IP Configuration utility).
Configuring gateway fail-safe
About VLAN fail-safe
For maximum reliability, the BIG-IP® system supports failure detection on all VLANs. When you configure the fail-safe option for a VLAN, the BIG-IP system monitors network traffic going through that VLAN. If the BIG-IP system detects a loss of traffic on the VLAN and the fail-safe timeout period has elapsed, the BIG-IP system attempts to generate traffic by issuing ARP requests to nodes accessible through the VLAN. The BIG-IP system also generates an ARP request for the default route, if the default router is accessible from the VLAN. Failover is averted if the BIG-IP system is able to send and receive any traffic on the VLAN, including a response to its ARP request.
For a redundant system configuration, if the BIG-IP system does not receive traffic on the VLAN before the timeout period expires, the system can initiate failover to another device group member, reboot, or restart all system services. For a single device configuration, the system can either reboot or restart all system services. The default action for both configurations is Reboot.
Each interface card installed on the BIG-IP system is typically mapped to one or more different VLANs. Thus, when you set the fail-safe option on a particular VLAN, you need to know the interface to which the VLAN is mapped. You can use the BIG-IP Configuration utility to view VLAN names and their associated interfaces.