How SD-WAN Edge High Availability (HA) Works

The high availability solution ensures continued traffic flow in case of failures. The SD-WAN Edge is the VMware data plane component that is deployed at an end user’s branch location. SD-WAN Edge configured in High Availability (HA) mode are mirror images of each other and they show up on the SD-WAN Orchestrator as a single SD-WAN Edge.

In a high availability configuration, SD-WAN Edges are deployed at the branch site in pairs of Active and Standby roles. Configurations are mirrored across both these Edges. The Active and Standby Edges exchange heartbeats using a failover link established over a wired WAN connection. If the Standby Edge loses connectivity with the Active Edge for a defined period, the Standby Edge assumes the identity of the Active Edge and takes over the traffic load. The failover has minimal impact on the traffic flow.

The SD-WAN Orchestrator communicates only with the Active Edge. Any changes made to the Active Edge using the Orchestrator are synchronized with the Standby Edge using the failover link.