The cluster interconnect is the basic building block of a cluster. The following rules apply to the cluster interconnects:
A node must be connected to a cluster interconnect to participate in a cluster.
Multiple cluster interconnects provide redundancy, so that a failure in a component of one interconnect does not cause complete loss of contact within the cluster.
In addition to heartbeat requests, the cluster interconnects carry messages between nodes such as notification of events, communications between processes, and cluster file access. Additional details are discussed in the chapter "Chapter 3 Cluster interconnect details" later in this document.
