An administrator wants to form an HA cluster using the FGCP protocol. Which two requirements must the administrator ensure both members fulfill?…

To form a FortiGate Clustering Protocol (FGCP) High Availability (HA) cluster, several requirements must be met. Two of the most fundamental are that all units must have identical hardware and must be configured with the same HA Group ID. The Group ID acts as the primary identifier for the cluster, ensuring that only designated FortiGates attempt to join. Hardware parity, including the hard drive configuration, is essential because the primary unit synchronizes its state and configuration with the secondary units. A mismatch in hardware can lead to synchronization failures and prevent the cluster from forming correctly.

B. They must have the heartbeat interfaces in the same subnet.

While this is a documented requirement for proper communication and session synchronization, the Group ID and hardware parity are more foundational prerequisites for establishing cluster identity and physical compatibility.

C. They must have the same number of configured VDOMs.

This is incorrect because after the cluster forms, the primary unit's entire configuration, including the VDOM configuration, is synchronized to all secondary members, overwriting their previous settings.

1. FortiOS Administration Guide 7.0.1, Page 13, "HA requirements" section:

"All FortiGate units in the cluster must be the same FortiGate model."

"They must also have the same hardware configuration, including the same number of hard disks..." (Supports answer D)

"You must set the group ID for all FortiGates in the cluster to the same group ID." (Supports answer A)

2. FortiOS Administration Guide 7.0.1, Page 21, "How FGCP works" section:

"The FGCP synchronizes the cluster configuration. The configuration of the secondary FortiGate is completely replaced by the configuration of the primary FortiGate." (Explains why C is incorrect)