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 SASE 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 SASE 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.