module install into firewall pair...help with order of steps

mjsully · ‎05-19-2010

I need to install a 4 Port GE module (SSM-4GE) into a pair of ASA 5510's running in active/standby state. I was hoping to be able to do one firewall at a time in order to avoid any downtime for the traffic flowing through them, but I'm concerned about what happens as it relates to failover. My original plan was to start by powering down the secondary failover unit and installing the module. Then I was going to power it on and make it the primary. But I'm not sure what will happen when the current primary sees the standby come back up, will it know that the hardware has changed? My plan was to then power down the primary/standby and insert the module, bring it back up, and make it primary once again. Is there a better method for doing this? should I just do both at once and deal with a brief outage to avoid any failover issues?

Jon Marshall · ‎05-19-2010

mjsully wrote:

I need to install a 4 Port GE module (SSM-4GE) into a pair of ASA 5510's running in active/standby state. I was hoping to be able to do one firewall at a time in order to avoid any downtime for the traffic flowing through them, but I'm concerned about what happens as it relates to failover. My original plan was to start by powering down the secondary failover unit and installing the module. Then I was going to power it on and make it the primary. But I'm not sure what will happen when the current primary sees the standby come back up, will it know that the hardware has changed? My plan was to then power down the primary/standby and insert the module, bring it back up, and make it primary once again. Is there a better method for doing this? should I just do both at once and deal with a brief outage to avoid any failover issues?

If it was me i would schedule a brief outage to install the new module in both firewalls at the same time.

Jon