Management high availability
A change window can expose two separate problems. Can an administrator reach a writable management database? Can the gateway still enforce its installed policy? Test those independently. The terms primary and secondary describe installation order. Active and standby describe the current management role. A secondary can become active after changeover.
In a lab, publish a uniquely named network object and check the peer's synchronization status. Record the time of the last successful sync and which system is active. During a controlled changeover, reconnect SmartConsole and look for that object before making another change. If the peers disagree, stop editing and resolve the state before accepting either database as current.