Troubleshooting heartbeat packets

Understanding the different types of heartbeat packets will ease troubleshooting. Heartbeat packets are recognized as Layer 2 frames. The switches and routers on the heartbeat network that connect to heartbeat interfaces must be configured to allow them to pass through. If Layer 2 frames are dropped by these network devices, then the heartbeat traffic will not be allowed between the cluster units.

For example, some third-party network equipment may not allow EtherType 0x8893. The unit can still be found in the HA cluster, but you would be unable to run execute ha manage to manage the other unit. Use the following settings to change the EtherTypes of the HA heartbeat packets, if they require changing them for the traffic to be forwarded on the connected switch.

config system ha
    set ha-eth-type <hex_value>
    set hc-eth-type <hex_value>
    set l2ep-eth-type <hex_value>
end

To change the EtherType values of the heartbeat and HA Telnet session packets:

config system ha
    set ha-eth-type 8895
    set l2ep-eth-type 889f
end

For troubleshooting issues with packets sent or received on the HA heartbeat ports, use the following diagnostic command to sniff the traffic by EtherType.

# diagnose sniffer packet any 'ether proto <EtherType_in_hex>' 6 0 1

To sniff the traffic on EtherType 0x8890:

# diagnose sniffer packet any 'ether proto 0x8890' 6 0 l
Using Original Sniffing Mode
interfaces=[any]
filters=[ether proto 0x8890]
2022-10-19 16:22:26.512813 port5 out Ether type 0x8890 printer hasn't been added to sniffer.
0x0000   0000 0000 0000 000c 293b e61c 8890 5201        ...