High Availability License Synchronization Overview

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What is High Availability License Synchronization?

High Availability license synchronization provides a way to share SonicWall security services, Stateful Synchronization, and other licenses between two SonicWall security appliances when one is acting as a high availability secondary 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 Secondary appliance. All security services you see on the Security Services > Summary page 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 Secondary appliance is licensed and ready to take over network security operations.

In SonicOS 4.0 and higher, the Stateful Synchronization 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 Synchronization the Primary unit actively communicates with the Secondary on a per connection and VPN level. As the Primary creates and updates connection cache entries or VPN tunnels, the Secondary unit is informed of such changes. The Secondary 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 Standby unit in a High Availability pair. When the Stateful Synchronization Upgrade is licensed, the Secondary unit is always synchronized so that there is no interruption to existing network connections if the Primary unit fails.