SG-330 High Availability

Question

Hi All: 
 I have a SG-330 running latest firmware 9.601-5. I have a second SG-330, new in box. I am looking at implementing HA (failover, not active-active). 
 First, are there any downsides of doing HA? Or would I be better to leave the spare in the box (guessing not, but...). 
 Should I fire up the spare HA, not connected to anything first? To burn in? 
 To do HA, do I just connect the second box interaces into the network? (I have five interfaces connected, one of which is a trunk going to a Cisco switch doing VLANs,) Then connect the eth3 HA interface between the boxes, and fire up the spare box? Is it that simple? 
 The spare box hasn't had any updates done to it - is that a part of the HA process? Or should it be updated first? 
 How long does the process take? Minutes? Hours? 
 Any best practices or rulz to follow? 
 Thanks ! 
 John S.

Alexander Busch · Answer

Hi John, 
 as you described it is simple. Connect the cables and fire up the box. 
 Two things you have to care for. 
 First you have to make sure HA is configured, it is under Management > High Availability > Configuration. Enable configuration of new devices. 
 Second make sure the version of the new box is not too far away from the existing one. 
 The updates will be automatically handled by the UTM, but if the box is on an very old release it’s better to start with a new iso. 
 After powering on a sync process is starting and then you got a HA setup, active/passive or hot standby. Don’t know witch wording is preferred by Sophos. 
 If something goes wrong the HA won’t be activated and you could solve the problem. 
 The sync process doesn’t take hours, but a couple of minutes. 
 Give it a try. And the community is a very good place for questions. 
 Best regards 
 Alex