Which two factors are required for an active-active HA configuration of FortiMail in server mode? (Choose two answers)

A. A primary must be designated to initially process email.
B. Mail data must be stored on a NAS server.
C. Service monitoring must be configured for remote SMTP.
D. Devices must be deployed behind a load balancer.

Correct Answer: A,B

Brave-Dump Clients Votes

AB 100%

Comments

Mohamed Hadjmimoune 2025-04-13 12:53:07

Selected Answers: A, B

Fortimaail study guide page 378,

"Although their configurations are kept in sync, active-active cluster members operate independently of each other, handling SMTP connections and performing their configured scans individually. Because their configurations are identical, active-active clusters in gateway mode or transparent mode are often positioned behind a load balancer, multiplying the capacity of that of any single FortiMail instance. Another use case for active-active clusters is to deploy them in server mode to maintain an email server farm.

The members of the cluster are operational peers of each other, because they process the email traffic. However, one member is elected as the configuration primary and all configuration changes are made on that device. Any configuration changes made on the configuration primary are instantly propagated to the other devices, keeping them synchronized.

The main motivation for deploying active-active HA clusters is to create increased capacity. However, when positioned behind load balancers, a measure of HA or redundancy is also provided. If a device fails, the load balancer stops sending traffic to the failed device and shares the traffic with the rest of the remaining devices.

Each FortiMail in the cluster maintains its own set of mail transfer agent (MTA) queues and mail storage, which are not synchronized across the devices. Any messages held in a queue when a device fails, are lost. For this reason, you should use an external network attached storage (NAS) device for gateway or transparent mode clusters. Server mode clusters require external NAS storage; otherwise, user mailbox data becomes incoherent because it’s spread randomly across the devices in the server farm."