HA FortiGate Question

[kalanfuga]

We just received a duplicate 100F and we're setting them up in an HA (active-active) cluster. Our boss wants to know what protection this will give us in the event of a cyber attack (justifying the purchase after-the-fact). We're saying that in the event someone gets all the way to the firewall, since they're both online and in an HA cluster it'll be as if there were only one unit and both will be affected. Thoughts?

[AlexC-FTNT]

To properly quatinfy the benefit you would need accurate measurements/reports of prevented attacks or attempts from before and after. 

But to answer the question, an Active-Active cluster shares the attack surface and the load almost equally. Meaning that compared to an A-P cluster, it can withstand better the external attacks, but at the same time offer no redundancy (when it fails, then both fail).

[pavankr5]

Hello @kalanfuga 

The cluster primarily helps protect against attacks at the network perimeter and provides continuity during hardware failures, but a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy should involve layers of defense, including intrusion detection and prevention systems, regular security updates, network segmentation.

Thanks