how to ensure the primary ASA 5525 taking over

[baselzind]

i have two 5525-x "active standby" with sfr managed by fmc , I disconnected them and upgraded each one to 9.14.2. I installed back the one with "failover primary" into the rack and brought it live but now i need to connect the "failover secondary". I want to ensure that my primary asa stays primary when i connect the HA cable so that the secondary doesn't overwrite it and becomes active. DO I shutdown and connect the secondary ASA HA then bring it up so that i ensure it becomes secondary? or do i connect it while it is up? also when doing both scenarios would there be outage? like the primary would restart?

[Marvin Rhoads · Accepted solution]

Make sure your primary - active is healthy. Prior to bringing up the secondary make sure it it configured with "failover secondary". Do not connect any interfaces except the failover interface. Then power it on. It will detect an Active mate and sync from it as part of the initialization process. Once it is synced, connect other other interfaces. Finally verify it is in standby - ready state.

[baselzind]

how do I check if my primary is healthy? atm my primary is live since 1 week and I didn't get any complaints. Also when I do what you have described would there be an outage? like during the time the secondary boot and comes up?

[Richard Burts]

There should not be an outage as the secondary boots up and comes into service. 

[Marvin Rhoads]

Check the Primary-Active with "show failover" and make sure the only failure noted is due to the Secondary being offline (failed).

Bringing up the Secondary following the recommended procedure should not have any impact on current traffic through the primary unit.