the pix failover feature lets you connect two identical pix firewall units with a special failover cable to achieve a fully redundant firewall solution. table 1-1 summarizes the support for the failover feature provided by different pix firewall models.

    table 1-1: support for failover

   

    when implementing failover, one unit functions as the active unit, while the other assumes the role of the standby unit. both units need the same configuration and run the same software version. the failover cable that connects two pix firewall units allows the two units to synchronize configuration and session state information so that if the active unit fails, the standby unit can assume its role without any interruption in network connectivity or security. to configure the pix firewall failover feature, refer to "using pix firewall failover."