TL/DR: What does interchassis / box to box redundancy on Cisco ASR/4400s actually do?
Backstory: I manage CIsco ASRs and 4400s that have multiple groups of people configuring them and more times then not configuration changes aren’t done to the redundant devices. We run pairs of devices using HSRP, redundant links, etc but sync’ing the configs is a real issue that I haven’t found a way to fully ensure is done. I’ve looked to script it, build automation or otherwise get this under control but while doing so I found that the ASR/4400 have HA built in but I can’t quite figure out what it actually does and more to the point if it will overcome my configuration sync issues. Before going the scripting/automation route I want to make sure I’m not reinventing the wheel but the redundancy/box to box stuff on these routers seem hardly mentioned, not well documented and I’m getting the feeling it was an idea that never got fully developed.
Most of my confusion stems from the Cisco docs as the overview makes this seem like redundancy akin to ASA/ other firewalls replication in that a HA pair has complete configuration sync along with live replication of state data (e.g. nat translations, IPSec funnel info, etc). But on the same docs it then goes on to talk about specific applications and overall there aren’t tons of detail on the feature and no clear cut configuration guides that I could find.
I tried to lab up the feature using CML and CSR1000v but couldn’t get it going which may be in part due to the CSR having additional options for redundancy to run across different cloud providers.
So anyone have any experience with this? I don’t want to waste a day getting some lab units configured just to find it’s a half baked feature or just something that isn’t actually what I think it is.
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