> Source: [sk179849](https://support.checkpoint.com/results/sk/sk179849)

# sk179849 - The inactive cluster member on a 1200R appliance sends irregular Gratuitous ARP requests that associate the cluster's VIP with its own IP address even though no failover occurred

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| Solution ID | sk179849 |
| Date Created | 2022-08-22 |
| Last Modified | 2022-08-22 |
| Technical Level | General |
| Products | Security Gateway, Spark Firewall (Locally Managed) |
| Versions | R82.10, R82, R81.20, R82.00.X, R81.10.X |

## Symptoms

- In 1200R appliances, the inactive cluster member sends irregular Gratuitous ARP requests that associate the cluster's VIP with its own IP address even though no failover occurred.

## Cause

According to internal implementation, sometimes the standby (inactive) cluster member needs to probe the VIP network when the standby member IP address is not on the same subnet as the VIP.

Therefore, the standby member temporarily uses its own VIP address to be able to probe the network.

## Solution

As Best Practice, we recommend that all addresses should be on the same subnet. The VIP IP address and the physical IP address should not be on separate network subnets.

To avoid the issue with the probing mechanism, we recommend that you upgrade to the 1500 appliance series.

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