What is the difference between HA A-A and A-P in fortigate

[Umesh]

Hi everyone,

I am a little bit confused with regard to HA active-active and active-passive mode in fortigate.

Actually one of the interviewers asked me please tell me the difference between HA a-a and a-p. but I couldn't elaborate it deeply. I told him -

For ha A-A mode we use to utilize both clusters however in case any of the clusters fails traffic will not disturb because both clusters are in A-A mode, and traffic will move to another cluster.

For ha A-P suppose there are two clusters in HA If one of the clusters fails traffic will move via the secondary cluster because there is one master and the secondary is in slave mode.

I just want to know you all whatever I have told him all things are true or not please let me know if there is any mistake.

Please reply ASAP.

Regards,

Umesh

[ntaneja]

Hi Umesh

Below is the link which describes basic difference between both modes of HA on device
https://docs.fortinet.com/document/fortigate/6.0.0/handbook/313980/active-passive-and-active-active-...

[Yurisk]

Depends on what role you are applying to - for a junior net admin your answer seems correct to me. Failover-wise, there is no much difference between A-P and A-A - when a member fails, its traffic is switched to the  other member(s) the same way for both modes. A-A is not done for the better failure times, but for sharing the load, and additionally for failover, while A-P only for failover.