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SonicOS 5.8.1 Administrator Guide
High Availability License Synchronization Overview
This section provides an introduction to the SonicWALL High Availability license
synchronization feature. This section contains the following subsections:
• “What is High Availability License Synchronization?” on page 1141
• “Benefits” on page 1141
What is High Availability License Synchronization?
High Availability license synchronization provides a way to share SonicWALL security services,
Stateful High Availability, and other licenses between two SonicWALL security appliances
when one is acting as a high availability backup for the other. To use this feature, you must
register the SonicWALL appliances on mysonicwall.com as Associated Products. Both
appliances must be the same SonicWALL model.
High availability license synchronization allows sharing of the SonicOS Enhanced license, the
Support subscription, and the security services licenses present on the Primary SonicWALL
appliance with the associated Backup appliance. All security services you see on the Security
Services > Summary screen are shareable, including Free Trial services. The only licenses
that are not shareable are for consulting services, such as the SonicWALL GMS Preventive
Maintenance Service. When a hardware failover occurs, the Backup appliance is licensed and
ready to take over network security operations.
In SonicOS Enhanced 4.0 and higher, the Stateful High Availability Upgrade is offered on
appliance models that support it as an optional licensed feature. On MySonicWALL, only the
Primary unit in the HA pair needs to be licensed. With Stateful High Availability the Primary unit
actively communicates with the Backup on a per connection and VPN level. As the Primary
creates and updates connection cache entries or VPN tunnels, the Backup unit is informed of
such changes. The Backup unit remains in a continuously synchronized state so that it can
seamlessly assume the network responsibilities upon failure of the Primary unit with no
interruption to existing network connections.
Benefits
High Availability license synchronization is a cost-effective option for deployments that provide
high availability by using redundant SonicWALL security appliances. You do not need to
purchase a second set of licenses for the Idle unit in a High Availability pair. When the Stateful
High Availability Upgrade is licensed, the Backup unit is always synchronized so that there is
no interruption to existing network connections if the Primary unit fails.
Stateful and Non-Stateful High Availability Prerequisites
Your network environment must meet the following prerequisites before configuring Stateful
High Availability or non-stateful High Availability:
• The Primary and Backup appliances must be the same model. Mixing and matching
SonicWALLs of different hardware types is not currently supported.
• It is strongly recommended that the Primary and Backup appliances run the same version
of SonicOS Enhanced firmware; system instability may result if firmware versions are out
of sync, and all High Availability features may not function completely. High Availability is
only supported on the SonicWALL security appliances running SonicOS Enhanced. It is not
supported in any version of SonicOS Standard.