Failover IP questions

Does Linode still offer Failover IP bewteeen servers?

Yes, we do still offer Failover IP's between server.

If so what is the process to get one and is there a charge?

You will need to have 2 servers and configure a highly available website or service that runs on each of them and keeps the data on both of them consistent[1]. Next, you will want to configure IP failover from the Remote Access tab in Linode Manager[2]. Then when your IP address that is configured to fail over goes down your traffic will be automatically rerouted to the failover IP address. There is no charge for the failover service just the normal charges associated with running a Linode.

Do I need to use the API to switch the Failover IP?

No you don't need to use the AIP. Linode Manager handles the failover in conjunction with a service such as keepalive.

Can the Failover IP, be moved between data centers for example UK and Germany or do they need to be in the same datacenter?

At this point, no we do not offer failover between data centers.

[1] https://www.linode.com/docs/websites/introduction-to-high-availability/
[2] https://www.linode.com/docs/platform/manager/remote-access/#configuring-ip-failover

Hi,

Thanks for the reply, just a few more questions and I am set.

How does the failover work. As in does it move the really IP to the over server, or does it work on a private IP?

If I was to setup a load balancer between 2 Linode's, so if one failover it will auto swap. Do I just use the one IP which ever I pick as primary?

Also how quick does it failover?

Regards,
Garry

Greetings @GazCBG,

How does the failover work.

For IP Failover I generally recommend using Apache's keepalived. Keepalived is a routing service that can be used to monitor and fail over components in a high availability configuration. You can find out more about how it works here:

http://www.keepalived.org/

Does it work on a private IP?

Yes it would. If you used our NodeBalancer it would be communicating via the private network.

https://www.linode.com/docs/platform/nodebalancer/nodebalancer-reference-guide/

https://www.linode.com/docs/platform/manager/remote-access/#adding-private-ip-addresses

Do I just use the one IP which ever I pick as primary?

Yes, you can think of the servers as a master/slave.

Also how quick does it failover?

We recommend testing this out, but it would failover pretty quickly within a few seconds if not less.

Make sure that Network Helper is turned OFF when configuring IP failover.

Best,
Preston
Linode Support Team