TouchPro Dual Network Connection

Networking

Dual Network Connection

•Both switch ports connected to the turret (LAN1 and LAN2) must be on the same IP Subnet / VLAN

•To achieve redundancy, the dual attachment must be connected to two separate physical switches.

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The Turret XMA2 detects the connections (Single or Dual) at startup and if Dual connection is detected, it then enables the redundancy mechanism.

If the turret is booted with only a single network connection, it will remain in single connection mode. Adding a second network connection after booting in this mode while the turret is powered on may cause issues. To properly enable dual network connectivity, the turret must be rebooted or powered off and restarted with both connections in place.

Additional Notes on MAC addresses

Single Connection

When the Turret is connected to only one switch port (Single) it will only use the MAC of the Internal Motherboard NIC.

This is the NIC called "Local Area Connection" which has the IP address of the Turret.

Single attachment - MAC seen on customer's switch side:

•Switch has the Turret (Internal Motherboard NIC) Ethernet MAC address

Dual Connection

When the Turret is connected to two switch ports (Dual), the redundancy (echo) mechanism is automatically enabled in the XMA2.

In this configuration, the XMA2 transmits Layer 2 echo frames from one exit port, while monitoring the reception of these frames on the second exit port. (These "exit ports" are LAN1 and LAN2 on the XMA2)

The ports used for sending and receiving the frames alternate with each transmission. This redundancy (echo) mechanism uses the MAC address of each LAN (1/2) port directly.

This allows the XMA2 to monitor both ports and, in the event of a failure on one, immediately activate the standby port.

This means that there are 3 MAC addresses involved when the turret is Dual Network connected. Therefore, the customer must adjust their security policy to account for the MAC addresses involved.

Dual attachment - MAC's seen on customer's switch side:

•Switch A has the XMA2 LAN 1 MAC address

•Switch B has the XMA2 LAN 2 MAC address

•Switch A has the Turret (Internal Motherboard NIC) Ethernet MAC address

•If Switch A fails, then Switch B has the Turret (Internal Motherboard NIC) Ethernet MAC address

The XMA2 MAC addresses are only sent to the customer network in case of Dual Attachment and only for the purpose of the redundancy (echo) mechanism.