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Cisco ASA 5500 Series Configuration Guide using ASDM
Chapter7 Using the High Availability and Scalability Wizard
Configuring Failover with the High Availability and Scalability Wizard
Change a Device to Multiple Mode
The Change Device to Multiple Mode dialog box appears only for an Active/Active failover
configuration. Active/Active failover requires that the ASA be in multiple context mode. This dialog box
lets you convert a ASA in single context mode to multiple context mode.
When you convert from single context mode to multiple context mode, the ASA creates the system
configuration and the admin context from the current running configuration. The admin context
configuration is stored in the admin.cfg file. The conversion process does not save the previous startup
configuration, so if the startup configuration differed from the running configuration, those differences
are lost.
Converting the ASA from single context mode to multiple context mode causes the ASA and its peer to
reboot. However, the High Availability and Scalability Wizard restores connectivity with the newly
created admin context and reports the status in the Devices Status field in this dialog box.
Note You must convert both the current ASA and its peer to multiple context mode before you can proceed.
To change the current ASA to multiple context mode, perform the following steps:
Step1 Click Change device To Multiple Context, where device is the hostname of the ASA.
Step2 Repeat this step for the peer ASA.
The status of the ASA appears during conversion to multiple context mode.
Security Context Configuration
The Security Context Configuration screen appears only for an Active/Active configuration, and lets you
assign security contexts to failover groups. It displays the name of currently configured security
contexts, lets you add new ones, and change or remove existing ones as needed. In addition, it displays
the failover group number to which the context is assigned and lets you change the failover group as
needed. Although you can create security contexts in this screen, you cannot assign interfaces to those
contexts or configure other properties for them. To configure context properties and assign interfaces to
a context, choose System> Security Contexts.
Failover Link Configuration
The Failover Link Configuration screen appears only if you are configuring LAN-based failover.
To configure LAN-based failover, perform the following steps:
Step1 Choose the LAN interface to use for failover communication from the drop-down list.
Step2 Enter a name for the interface.
Step3 Enter the IP address used for the failover link on the unit that has failover group 1 in the active state.
This field accepts an IPv4 or IPv6 address.
Step4 Enter the IP address used for the failover link on the unit that has failover group 1 in the standby state.
This field accepts an IPv4 or IPv6 address.