Primary system is stuck as BACKUP

In some cases, this is may happen normally for a short period after a system comes back online. However, certain hardware failures or other error conditions can cause a server to silently take on a high advskew of 240 in order to signal that it still has a problem and should not become master. This can check be checked from the GUI, or via the shell or Diagnostics > Command.

In the GUI, this condition is printed in an error message on Status > CARP.

Fig. 3: CARP Status when Primary is demoted

From the shell or Diagnostics > Command, run the following command to check for a demotion:

# sysctl net.inet.carp.demotion
net.inet.carp.demotion: 240

If the value is greater than 0, the node has demoted itself.

In that case, isolate the firewall, check its network connections, and perform further hardware testing.

If the demotion value is 0 and the primary node still appears to be demoting itself to BACKUP or is flapping, check the network to ensure there are no layer 2 loops. If the firewall receives back its own heartbeats from the switch, it can also trigger a change to BACKUP status.