High Availability Sync is the feature that pfSense uses to synchronize configuration from a Master to a Slave, transferring the configuration over a chosen interface.
On the Master, go to System > High Availability Sync.
- Check the box “Synchronize States”,
- Choose the interface through which the configuration will be transferred,
- Enter the IP of the Slave in “Synchronize Config to IP”,
- Type the username and password of the administrator or any other user with sufficient privileges,
- Check the box “Toggle All” to enable full synchronization,
- Then click “Save”.
At this point, create a user and verify that it gets copied to the Slave. Suggestion: create a user called ‘sync’ to be used only for this purpose.
On the Master, go to System > User Manager.
- Click “Add”,
- Set a “Username” and “Password”,
- Under “Effective Privileges”, click “+ Add”,
- In “Assigned Privileges”, select only “System – HA node Sync”,
- Then click “Save” twice.
On the Slave, go to System > User Manager and verify that the ‘sync’ user is present.
On the Master, go to System > High Availability Sync and replace the ‘admin’ user with ‘sync’ and its password.
Keep in mind that any configuration made on the Slave will be overwritten by the Master.
If no alerts appear in the system notices, everything is working correctly.