Managing WAN Failover
This is an overview guide to help you set up WAN failover correctly, as well as show you some tricks to managing the service.
Setting up WAN Failover
Setting up WAN Failover is a lot easier than it sounds, so let's do that.
Step 1: Select your Site.
First, from your Dashboard, click on Sites in order to navigate to the site which you want to allocate the WAN Failover Interface to.
Step 2: Enable and Add WAN Failover Service
With your Site selected, navigate to the WAN Failover tab on the left hand side.
Select Enable in order to activate the WAN Failover service for your selected site.
Step 3: Configure the WAN Failover Interface(s)
After Enabling the WAN failover, you will see 2 un-configured wan interfaces underneath your WAN Failover tab.
Click on the WAN 1 interface's gear icon in order to configure the interface.
A small window will pop up, which you can use to set up the WAN Failover interface.
Set up a gateway that already has an IP address configured and that has a default route with internet connectivity. Additionally, if you enter custom gateway interface, it must be an exact match to that configured on the router. The gateway interface field is used to identify the physical or logical interface that is associated with the gateway.
Manage WAN Failover
After setting up WAN Failover, you may need to adjust the order of your WAN links, initiate a manual failover event, or fine-tune the routing distances to prioritize specific interfaces. This section will guide you through these proecesses to ensure your failover configuration is optimized for your network's needs.
Manually Initiating a WAN Failover
In most cases, MikroCloud will initiate the failover automatically to ensure that your MikroTik device stays connected and online; but there might be cases in which you will want to manually switch to a different WAN link, either for testing purposes, or to temporarily priorityze a specific connection.
Step 1: Navigate to the WAN Failover interface section
From your Site's Dashboard, click on the WAN Failover tab.
Step 2: Rearrange the Interface Order
Each WAN link is listed in order of priority.
The Priority works in the following ways:
| Number | Description |
|---|---|
| 1 | Primary Link |
| 2 | First Failover |
| 3 | Second Failover |
| 4 | Third Failover |
Click on the small arrow on the right hand side of the interface
You can use this arrow to move your interface either up or down.
You can also move multiple links without saving first.
When you are happy with your Configuration, you will see that a button has now popped up, called Confirm Priority.
- This button has a ✅ and a ❎
- Clicking this will either apply the new configuration, or it will cancel the configuration changes.
Please allow for up to 60 seconds for this failover event to occur.
You will most likely lose connection to your router if it is being configured remotely.
Step 3: Verify the Active Link
Once the changes have been made, monitor the network status to ensure that the intended WAN Link is now active.
- You can check the metrics like latency and throughput in real-time to confirm the switch.
🎉 Congrats, you have just successfully initiated a manual failover and changed your WAN interface order.
Routing Distances
Routing Distances are an essential configuration when managing multiple WAN connections.
- The distance value determines the priority of routes. (Lower Values have higher priority)
Properly setting these values ensures that your failover coniguration works as intended.
Step 1: Access your Router
- Log into your router using Transient Access, and your preferred management software (Winbox/ SSH).
Step 2: Access the routes
In the left-hand meny, go to IP -> Routes
This section lists all the active routes configured on your router.
Step 3: Locate your WAN Routes
In the routes table, identify the routes associated with your WAN interfaces.
- These routes will typically have a destination address of
0.0.0.0/0, indicating they are the default routes used for outbount internet traffic.
Step 4: Modify the Distance Values
Double-click on the route you want to adjust.
In the route settings window, locate the Distance field.
Set the distance value according to your failover priority:
| Distance Value | Description |
|---|---|
| 1 | Primary Link |
| 2 | First Failover |
| 3 | Second Failover |
| 4 | Third Failover |
Step 5: Apply and Save Changes
After adjusting the distance value, click OK or Apply to save your changes.
- The router will now prioritize WAN links based on the configured distances.
It is best practice to not have multiple WAN routes with the same route distance.
So, when changing one route distance, also change the others accordingly.
Not all routes can be changed within the IP -> Routes window, and some require other settings to also be changed.
Please refer to the following documentation should you require more assistance.
By adjusting route distances, you can precisely control the order of failover, ensuring that the router uses the most reliable and preferred connection as the primary link while seamlessly switching to backup links when needed.
Removing WAN Failover
If you no longer require the WAN Failover service or need to revert to a single WAN configuration, you can easily remove the failover settings.
Step 1: Navigate to the WAN Failover tab
From the Site Dashboard, open the WAN Failover tab.
Step 2: Deactivate the WAN Failover Service
Click on the Deactivate button in order to remove the WAN Failover configuration.
A pop-up will open a new window, in which a Confirm or Cancel button will appear, choose one of the options to cancel the WAN Failover service, or return to the Site Overview.
You have now successfully removed the WAN Failover service from your device.
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