Dedicate a network for clusters

During normal operations, base clustering communication traffic is minimal. It is, however, highly recommended that you have redundant communication paths configured for each node in a cluster.

A redundant communications path means that you have two lines configured between two nodes in a cluster. If a failure on the first communication path occurs, the second communication path can take over to keep communications running between the nodes, thereby minimizing conditions that can put one or more nodes of the cluster into a cluster partition. One thing to consider when configuring these paths is that if both of your communications lines go into the same adapter on the system, these lines are still at risk if this single adapter fails. However, it should be noted that a cluster partition is not always avoidable. If your system experiences a power loss or if a hardware failure occurs, the cluster can become partitioned. By configuring two lines, you can dedicate one line for clustering traffic and the other line for the normal traffic and also for the backup line if the dedicated line for clustering goes down. The typical network-related cluster partition can best be avoided by configuring redundant communications paths between all nodes in the cluster.