HP StorageWorks Clustered File System 3.6.0 Windows Storage Server Edition Administration Guide (403103-005, January 2008)

Chapter 6: Configure Network Interfaces 56
specify the networks that you prefer to use for the administrative traffic.
For performance reasons, we recommend that these networks be isolated
from the networks used by external clients to access the cluster.
When HP Clustered File System is started, the PanPulse process selects
the administrative network from the available networks. When a new
server joins the cluster, the PanPulse process on that server tries to use the
established administrative network.
If it cannot use that network, the PanPulse process on the new server will
look for another network that all of the servers can use. If this attempt
fails, the new server will attempt to communicate with the other servers
over the main interface (the hostname interface) if possible; however, it
may drop out of the cluster.
Network Topology
The cluster should have a symmetrical network configuration; each
server should be connected to the same set of networks. This topology
helps to ensure that the administrative network can fail over to another
network and maintain communications with all servers in the cluster.
If the network topology is asymmetric, where networks are connected to
only some of the servers, it may not be possible to fail over the
administrative network to another network because the new network
might not reach all of the servers in the cluster.
Virtual Hosts
A virtual host is created on a set of network interfaces. These network
interfaces must be enabled for virtual hosting. By default, all network
interfaces are enabled; however, you can disable a network interface if
you do not want it to carry virtual host traffic.
Network Interfaces and the Management Console
When HP Clustered File System is started, the ClusterPulse process
probes the servers in the cluster to locate network interfaces and then
adds the interfaces to its configuration file. The Servers window on the
HP CFS Management Console shows the network interfaces for each
server as defined in this file. (Because there can be stale information in the