Which of the following is a recommended action when adding a secondary device in an HA pair?

• A. Configure the HA status of the Primary Node as STAYPRIMARY.
• B. HA Monitoring should be disabled on all the unused interfaces.
• C. Both the devices should have different SNIP addresses.
• D. The Independent Network Configuration (INC) mode should be enabled.

Answer: (A)

When adding a secondary device to a high-availability pair, you want the current primary to stay in the primary role during the integration. Configuring the Primary Node as STAYPRIMARY ensures the primary won’t be promoted or flipped during the setup and synchronization with the new device. This provides stability, preserves existing sessions, and avoids unexpected changes in traffic paths while the new unit comes online as the secondary.

Disabling HA monitoring on unused interfaces isn’t typically advised because health checks on relevant interfaces help trigger correct failover and keep the pair responsive. Having SNIPs on both devices is standard, but they should be distinct per device to avoid conflicts, and Independent Network Configuration mode isn’t required for a normal HA addition.