Fortinet FortiGate FortiGate-5001FA2 Introductions Manual page 37

FortiSwitch-5003 module
FortiGate-5000 Series Introduction
01-30003-0378-20061207
In a single chassis, more than one cluster can use the same base backplane
interface for HA heartbeat communication. To separate heartbeat communication
for multiple clusters on the same base backplane interface, configure a different
HA group name and password for each cluster.
In a single chassis, you can also use the same base backplane interface for data
and HA heartbeat communication. If you are operating multiple clusters and
multiple data paths on the same base backplane interface you may experience
some bandwidth limitations. To increase the amount of bandwidth available you
can add a second FortiSwitch-5003 module and use both backplane interfaces for
HA heartbeat and data communication.
If you have two FortiSwitch-5003 modules and two backplane interfaces available
you can balance the traffic between the base backplane interfaces by how you
configure your FortiGate-5000 module data interfaces and HA heartbeat
interfaces. For example, if you have two busy FortiGate-5001SX clusters you
might configure one cluster to use port9 for HA heartbeat traffic and the other to
use port10. If you have a number of data paths that use the same base backplane
interfaces you can change the configuration to distribute traffic between both base
backplane interfaces.
Base backplane communications
37