Troubleshooting Tip: Unnecessary HA selection when booting up

Let's assume that the FGT-A takes the primary role due to HA override disabled and higher uptime than FGT-B.
Once FGT-A reboots, FGT-B should be elected as the new primary, and FGT-A is expected to take a secondary role, because it has lower uptime.

However, FGT-A running on v7.4.7 is selected as the only member for a short time after booting up, even though the HA peer stays alive, and it turns back to the secondary role, as below.

FortiGate # diagnose sys ha history read
version=1.2
HA state change time: 2025-11-11 19:55:31
message_count=18/512
<2025-11-11 19:55:31> vcluster-1: FGT-B is selected as the primary because its uptime is larger than peer member FGT-A.
<2025-11-11 19:55:31> new member 'FGT-B' joins the cluster
<2025-11-11 19:55:31> vcluster-1: FGT-A is selected as the primary because it's the only member in the cluster.
<2025-11-11 19:55:31> hatalk started
<2025-11-11 19:54:17> hatalk exited
<2025-11-11 19:54:12> vcluster-1: FGT-B is selected as the primary because SET_AS_SECONDARY flag is set on peer member FGT-A.
<2025-11-11 18:02:14> vcluster-1: FGT-A is selected as the primary because its uptime is larger than peer member FGT-B.

The unnecessary HA selection issue is fixed in v7.4.8, v7.6.0 or later, which includes the fix for bug ID 1000808.