Installation and Troubleshooting Guide

38 Understanding Your Failover Cluster
Node-to-Node Communication
If a network is configured for public (client) access only, the Cluster Service
will not use the network for internal node-to-node communications. If all of
the networks that are configured for private (or mixed) communication fail,
the nodes cannot exchange information and one or more nodes will terminate
MSCS and temporarily stop participating in the cluster.
Network Interfaces
You can use Cluster Administrator or another cluster management
application to view the state of all cluster network interfaces.
Cluster Nodes
A cluster node is a system in a cluster running the Microsoft Windows
®
operating system and MSCS.
Each node in a cluster:
• Attaches to one or more cluster storage devices that store all of the cluster's
configuration and resource data; nodes have access to all cluster
configuration data
• Communicates with the other nodes through network adapters
• Is aware of systems that join or leave the cluster
• Is aware of the resources that are running on each node
• Is grouped with the remaining nodes under a common cluster name, which
is used to access and manage the cluster
Table 4-1 defines states of a node during cluster operation
Table 4-1. Node States and Definitions
State Definition
Down The node is not actively participating in cluster operations.
Joining The node is becoming an active participant in the cluster operations.
Paused The node is actively participating in cluster operations but cannot
take ownership of resource groups or bring resources online.
Up The node is actively participating in all cluster operations, including
hosting cluster groups.
Unknown The node state cannot be determined.