PA-7000 Series Firewall Module and Interface Card Information
Item
Component
Description
3
HSCI-A and HSCI-B
(High Speed Chassis
Interconnect)
Two 40Gbps QSFP+/100Gbps QSFP28 ports as defined
by the IEEE 802.3ba standard. The link speed is based
on the installed transceiver. Use this port to connect
two PA-7000 Series firewalls in a high availability (HA)
configuration as follows:
• In an active/passive configuration, this port is for HA2
(data link).
• In an active/active configuration, you can configure
this port for HA2 and/or HA3. HA3 is used for packet
forwarding for asymmetrically routed sessions that
require Layer 7 inspection for App-ID
™
and Content-
ID
™
.
When configuring an HSCI port as HA2 and
connecting both HSCI-A and HSCI-B ports
between the firewalls in an HA configuration,
the HA2 link will increase link speed and
secure redundancy. In this case, you cannot
configure an HSCI port as HA2-Backup as it
will cause a commit failure.
HA2 and HA2-Backup links can be configured
to use a dataplane interface instead of the
HSCI ports. However, if configured this way,
both the HA2 and HA2-Backup links need to
use dataplane interfaces. A mix of a dataplane
port and an HSCI port for either HA2 or HA2-
Backup will result in a commit failure.
The HSCI ports must be connected directly
between the two firewalls in the HA
configuration (not between a network switch
or router). When directly connecting two
PA-7050 or PA-7080 firewalls, use either
a 40Gbps QSFP+ Active Optical Cable
(AOC) or a 100Gbps QSFP28 Active Optical
Cable (AOC). For installations where the two
firewalls are not near each other and you
cannot use an AOC cable, use a standard
40Gbps or 100Gbps transceivers and the
appropriate cable length.
4
Console
Use this port to connect a management computer to the
firewall using a 9-pin serial-to-RJ-45 cable and terminal
emulation software.
PA-7000 Series Firewall Hardware Reference
39
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2023 Palo Alto Networks, Inc.
