Cisco CCNP Security Core (SCOR) 350-701Network SecurityMedium
A network security architect is designing a new infrastructure that requires high availability and seamless failover for critical security services, such as firewalls and intrusion prevention systems. These services must be able to share state information and maintain active connections even if one device fails. Which high availability feature is essential for achieving this stateful failover in redundant security devices?
- AHot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP)
- BLink Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP)
- CStateful Firewall Failover
- DVirtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP)
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: C. Stateful Firewall Failover
Stateful Firewall Failover is the specific feature that allows redundant security devices (like firewalls or IPS) to synchronize their connection state tables. This ensures that in the event of a primary device failure, the secondary device can seamlessly take over active connections without interruption, as it already possesses the necessary session information. This is critical for maintaining application continuity and security during outages.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. HSRP, like VRRP, provides first-hop router redundancy and does not manage stateful failover for security service connections.
- B. LACP aggregates multiple physical links into a single logical link for increased bandwidth and redundancy, but it doesn't manage stateful failover for security services.
- D. VRRP provides default gateway redundancy for hosts but doesn't synchronize state information for active connections across firewalls.
Stateful Firewall Failover
A high availability feature where redundant firewalls synchronize their connection state tables, allowing active sessions to persist during a failover event.
- Ensures continuous application connectivity
- Prevents session drops during device failure
- Requires synchronization of state information (e.g., NAT, VPN tunnels)
Memory trick: Stateful: Keep the conversation going.