Hardware passive fail over for bridges

[proactivens]

We have been successful in using hardware fail over for bridge mode installations. When/if there is a power failure, hardware failure, or software error we can bridge the WAN/LAN ports together to ensure traffic continues to flow to the network. This is an awesome feature that we have been looking at for 2 years now.

Am I the only one who is excited by this awesome feature?

PS,
I'm not posting this as an advertisement, as I am sure other hardware vendors will follow suite, I just wanted to let people who are interested know that it is now a legitimate configuration option for untangle bridge mode installations.

Additional hardware is required, but it is not as expensive as I thought it would be.

[gotkimchi]

+1, good job, we get asked all the time about HW failover. I will start pointing them to this post.

[gliverman]

So.... what has to be done to setup the fail over for bridged setups? What software / hardware is needed?

[rockbochs]

Interface Masters is offering a card that will be supported by Untangle called the Niagara 32265: http://www.interfacemasters.com/products/32265.html. We are currently evaluating this solution as well.

[mrunkel]

The Interface Masters card is supported in v7.2.

It works great in bridge mode deployments. If the power goes out or the kernel locks up, the card "clicks" over and becomes just a cable running through the box. No filtering, but the traffic just passes through.

You can literally pull the power plug (not recommended) and then boot the system and lose < 1 sec of connectivity.

[Flights]

Cool feature, im gathering that the option isnt currently available in the current software download? Or is it?

Or do you have to be using supported cars for the feature to become available? i know you can buy the boxes already configured.

Would like to make use of the feature but want to use old servers without buying any additonal kit for them if possible.

[SMR]

yeah, you'd have to purchase a card that allows for bypassing. Check out the link mentioned above about Interface Masters.

[mrunkel]

Yes, it's supported today.

You need a hardware failover card to make this work. The link above takes you to the manufacturer of the card.

[gliverman]

I am happy to see this but where in the world do you buy the card? It did not seem to come up in their store.

BTW: Found this link while searching...
http://www.untangle.com/About-Us/Unt...rewall-Gateway

[sky-knight]

Just bear in mind this fail-over option only works in a bridge configuration.

It's really hard to route things when you can't translate them with the linux kernel.