Technical Tip: How to access the secondary unit from the primary with the 'execute ha manage' command.

Description

This article describes how to access to secondary unit, from the primary unit using 'execute ha manage'. The FortiGate units are configured in HA cluster A-P or A-A cluster, to gain access to secondary from the primary unit CLI console.

Scope

Version 6.2.1 onwards.

Solution

On previous versions of FortiGate, by using 'exe ha manage <index ID>', users were able to login to the secondary unit. However, from 6.2.1 onwards, the command syntax changed.

Use the following command:

execute ha manage <index-ID> <admin-username>

Find the index number from the get sys ha status command output.

For example:

get sys ha status
HA Health Status: OK
Model: FortiGate-600E
Mode: HA A-P
...
...
...
Primary : Primary-Fortigate , FG6H0ETB21900953, HA cluster index = 0
Secondary : Secondary-Fortigate , FG6H0ETB21900951, HA cluster index = 1
number of vcluster: 1
...
...

Alternatively, the following CLI command can show the index number of the secondary when it is run in the primary:

exec ha manage ?

<id> please input peer box index.
<1> Subsidiary unit FW81FDTK23000097
 

In this case, use the following command to log in to the secondary from the primary:

execute ha manage 1 admin

Press the Enter key, and a prompt will appear for a Password. Once the password is entered, access will be granted for the Secondary unit.