ACA High Availability & Redundancy 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is the primary purpose of the AudioCodes High Availability (HA) configuration?
- To increase call processing capacity by load-balancing across two units
- To ensure continuous service by providing automatic failover to a standby unit (Correct answer)
- To enable geographic routing of SIP calls across multiple data centers
- To synchronize configuration changes across a cluster of gateways
Correct answer: To ensure continuous service by providing automatic failover to a standby unit
AudioCodes HA provides continuous service availability by automatically switching traffic to a standby unit when the active unit fails.
Question 2: In an AudioCodes 1+1 HA pair, what is the role of the 'Standby' unit?
- It actively processes half of all incoming SIP calls
- It remains synchronized with the active unit and takes over immediately upon failure (Correct answer)
- It handles only PSTN traffic while the active unit handles VoIP
- It performs configuration backups and firmware updates
Correct answer: It remains synchronized with the active unit and takes over immediately upon failure
The standby unit continuously mirrors the active unit's state so it can assume the active role instantly when a failure is detected.
Question 3: Which dedicated connection is required between two AudioCodes units forming an HA pair?
- A SIP trunk connection over port 5060
- A dedicated HA synchronization link (Ethernet cable or port) (Correct answer)
- A management VLAN shared between both devices
- A BGP peering session for routing table synchronization
Correct answer: A dedicated HA synchronization link (Ethernet cable or port)
A dedicated HA link (a direct Ethernet connection between the two units) is required for state and configuration synchronization.
Question 4: What is the 'Virtual IP Address' used for in an AudioCodes HA deployment?
- It is assigned to the standby unit for out-of-band management
- It serves as the single shared address used by SIP peers and trunks, floating between active and standby (Correct answer)
- It identifies the HA cluster to the AudioCodes EMS server
- It is reserved for SNMP trap destinations in redundant configurations
Correct answer: It serves as the single shared address used by SIP peers and trunks, floating between active and standby
The virtual (shared) IP floats between the active and standby units, so SIP peers never need to reconfigure their targets during a failover.
Question 5: What automatically triggers an HA failover in an AudioCodes system?
- A scheduled maintenance window defined in the EMS calendar
- Detection of a critical failure on the active unit, such as hardware fault or process crash (Correct answer)
- Exceeding 80% CPU utilization on the active unit for more than 60 seconds
- A firmware mismatch between the active and standby units
Correct answer: Detection of a critical failure on the active unit, such as hardware fault or process crash
Automatic failover is triggered by detection of a critical failure (hardware, software process crash, or network link failure) on the active unit.
Question 6: Which AudioCodes product series is commonly deployed in 1+1 HA configurations for enterprise and carrier environments?
- AudioCodes MP-1xx analog media gateways
- AudioCodes Mediant series (e.g., Mediant 2000, 3000, 9000) (Correct answer)
- AudioCodes IPPhone 400HD series
- AudioCodes One Voice Operations Center (OVOC) servers
Correct answer: AudioCodes Mediant series (e.g., Mediant 2000, 3000, 9000)
The Mediant series gateways and SBCs support 1+1 HA, making them suitable for carrier-grade and large enterprise deployments.
Question 7: During an AudioCodes HA switchover, how is configuration consistency between the active and standby maintained?
- Administrators must manually push configuration updates to both units separately
- Configuration is continuously synchronized from the active unit to the standby unit over the HA link (Correct answer)
- The standby unit polls the active unit for configuration changes every 24 hours
- Configuration is stored only on the EMS server and downloaded by whichever unit becomes active
Correct answer: Configuration is continuously synchronized from the active unit to the standby unit over the HA link
AudioCodes HA continuously replicates the active unit's configuration and call state to the standby unit via the HA link, ensuring immediate readiness.
ACA High Availability & Redundancy 1
What is the primary purpose of the AudioCodes High Availability (HA) configuration?