Cluster Creation Wizard

When you open Synology High Availability and there is no existing cluster detected, you will see the cluster creation wizard that will guide you through the process of creating and setting up a high-availability cluster.

To launch the wizard:

  1. Launch Synology High Availability
  2. Click Create high-availability cluster

Before you start

Synology High Availability requires two identical or compatible Synology NAS with the same system configurations to set up a cluster. Before you start the setup, please pay extra attention to the following information and configure your Synology NAS accordingly:

Recommended network configurations

You will need to set up a cluster connection and a Heartbeat connection for the cluster, both of which are key to a properly functioning cluster. This page explains how you should configure the built-in network interfaces for optimized performance. Make sure you have properly planned and configured the ethernet cables as recommended before continuing to the next step.

To achieve a better network connection:

  1. Choose the available network interface with the widest bandwidth for both cluster and Heartbeat connections:
  2. The Heartbeat connection must not be slower than the cluster connection.

Note:

Set up network interfaces

On this page, you will need to choose the network interfaces on both hosts as the cluster connection and the Heartbeat connection. The two drop-down menus list all the network interfaces on your hosts, but you can only select the connected ones. Please choose the same network interfaces on both hosts. For example, if one end is connected to LAN 1 on one server for the Heartbeat interface, then the other end must be connected to LAN 1 on the other server.

Heartbeat connection

The Heartbeat connection connects the two hosts, facilitating communication and data synchronization. To ensure the Heartbeat connection quality, the system will verify if it meets the qualifications below:

Note:

Cluster connection

You can access the cluster via the cluster connection, which can be connected to a switch. Through the High Availability mechanism, you are able to access the cluster with a set of virtual IP address, which automatically connects you to the active server. If the active server is down due to errors, this set of IP address will reconnect to the passive server to ensure that the passive server can take over the services shortly.

 To configure Link Aggregation on the Heartbeat or cluster connection:

Enter passive server information

The other host will serve as the passive server, which does not run any services under normal conditions. However, in the event of an active server malfunction, an auto failover will be performed and the passive server will take over the services. After you have set the Heartbeat connection, the system can retrieve the information of the passive server, and you need to log in to continue the setup.


Enter the following credential:

Note:

Set up High Availability Cluster

This is the part where you set up the hostname and the IP address of the cluster. Both the hostname and the IP address can be changed later in Synology High Availability.

Verify the requirements

At this point, the wizard will check if all system requirements are met:

If any of the requirements is failed, the details will be shown in the Status column along with solutions. All errors must be fixed before you can proceed to the next step.

Select an action for existing data

If there are existing data, volume or LUN detected on the active server, you can choose from the following options to proceed with the setup:

Note:

Confirm settings

You can double-check the settings you have made for the high-availability cluster on this page. Click Apply to proceed with the setup.