Configure Bind Variables on Active–Active HA Appliances

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Concerto supports active–active HA deployments. To create an active–active HA deployment in Concerto, you create a single profile and use it on the primary HA appliance, and then you add the secondary appliance. You use the same profile for both the primary and secondary HA appliances, and all bind data is configured in the primary appliance, even for the secondary HA appliance.

For Release 10.1.1, the LAN IP addresses are different for the primary and secondary HA appliances, but the rest of the configuration is the same for both appliances in the HA pair. Concerto automatically provides two fields for LAN IP address variables: Primary and Redundant. The LAN IP address entered in the Primary field is configured on the primary appliance, and the LAN IP address entered in the Redundant field is configure on the secondary appliance, as shown in the following screenshot.
 

For WAN interfaces, you specify one WAN IP address for the HA pair on a per-WAN basis. If the WAN interface is on the primary appliance, the WAN interface IP address is pushed to the primary appliance. If the WAN interface is on the secondary appliance, the WAN interface IP address is pushed to the secondary appliance.

However, some service templates that are pushed to Concerto from Versa Director can contain fields, such as fields for BGP configurations, in which there is a single variable but, in Concerto, the values should be different for the primary and secondary HA appliances.

To handle this type of scenario, for Releases 10.2.1 and later the bind variables for WAN interfaces in active–active HA deployments can be different for the primary and secondary appliances. Having different bind variables applies for any variables, not just for bind variables from service templates.

In the Variables screen, the Internet Address field for WAN interfaces shows a single field by default, as shown in the following screenshot.
 

For Releases 10.2.1 and later, the same field has a Plus icon. If your deployment requires a unique WAN address for the secondary HA appliance, you click the Plus icon. A field labeled Redundant displays, in which you can enter a WAN IP address for the secondary HA appliance.
 

The bind variable in the Primary field is configured on the primary appliance, and the bind variable in the Redundant field is configured on the secondary appliance.

The Redundant bind variable is optional.

For Releases 10.2.1 and later, you can use the same profile for both DHCP-based and static IP address-based interfaces, which helps reduce the number of profiles you need to create when you have different types of IP addresses (static or DHCP) for the same interface in different profiles. For example, the Internet-1-Address interface shown below is configured with a static IP address in the interface profile.
 

To use DHCP for the interface, type DHCP in the field. The configuration is automatically converted to a DHCP-based interface before it is published to the Director node on the appliance.
 

This conversion also works for a next-hop variables. To use a static IP address for the next hop, enter the IP address, as follows:

To use DHCP for the next-hop address, enter DHCP, as follows: