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Who can modify this feature?

  • Partner
  • Company/Network Admins with write and read access
  • Meter Support

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Overview

HA adds resilience to your network by deploying a pair of Meter Firewalls. If your primary Firewall experiences a hardware issue, a secondary backup Firewall automatically takes over to minimize downtime.

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How high availability works

HA pairs consist of a primary and a backup Firewall connected directly to each other and your network.
  1. Constant monitoring - The primary and backup Firewalls constantly monitor each other’s status via a dedicated connection
  2. Automatic failover - If the backup Firewall detects a problem with the primary (like a hardware failure or unresponsiveness), it automatically assumes control of network operations
  3. Configuration sync - The backup Firewall maintains a real-time copy of the primary’s configuration. This ensures a smooth transition without needing manual reconfiguration during a failover event
Important note on failover:
  • Automatic transition - The failover process does not require you to take action and is designed to be automatic
  • Non-stateful failover - Currently, the HA failover is non-stateful. This means active network sessions (like large downloads, VPN tunnels, or video calls) will be briefly interrupted and need to re-establish when the backup takes over. Stateful failover, which aims to preserve these sessions, is planned for a future release

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Monitoring HA status

You can easily check the status of your HA pair:
  • Firewalls page - Navigate to Hardware > Firewalls. You will see status indicators for each appliance, showing which is Active (Primary) and which is Ready (Backup)
  • Event logs - Failover events are recorded in the logs. Navigate to Logs > Events to view details of any HA transitions

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Setup and configuration

Meter handles the physical installation and initial configuration of your HA pair to ensure optimal setup. The following Dashboard information is primarily relevant for partners managing the installation or for understanding the configuration details.
While Meter configures HA, you can view the settings in your Meter Dashboard:
  1. Log in to dashboard.meter.com
  2. Navigate to Hardware > Firewalls
  3. Select the primary appliance
  4. In the Actions menu (usually top-right), you will see an option like “Edit high availability” (depending on permissions and setup status)
High availability actions menu
This panel displays the HA configuration details:
High availability settings

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Configuration options

SettingDescription
Enable high availabilityShows if HA is active (Toggle ON)
Primary interfaceThe specific LAN port on the primary Firewall used for the direct HA link
Backup interfaceThe corresponding LAN port on the backup Firewall for the direct HA link
Advertisement interval (ms)How frequently (in milliseconds) the backup checks the primary’s status. Default is typically 300ms
Advertisement VLANThe dedicated network segment (VLAN) used for communication between the Firewalls. Meter usually creates this automatically during setup
Once enabled, you can see the status of the Firewalls on the Firewalls page.
High availability status view

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Requirements for HA

To enable HA, your network setup needs:
  • Two Meter Firewalls - A primary and a secondary (backup) appliance
  • Independent ISP uplinks - Each Firewall requires its own connection to an Internet Service Provider. This ensures that the failure of one ISP link doesn’t bring down both appliances
  • Network connection - Both Firewalls connect to your core network switch, and directly to each other
Here’s a typical connection diagram:
High availability connection diagram

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Need help?

If you run into any issues or have questions, please reach out to our Support Engineering team by opening a ticket via the Dashboard: https://dashboard.meter.com/support
Last updated by Meter Support Engineering on 01/23/2026