Dell FluidFS NAS Solutions Administrator's Guide

The interconnect network is comprised of two independent networks. The interconnect network acts as the heartbeat mechanism and enables internal data transfer between controllers. In a two controller system, no switches are used. In configurations with more than two controllers, the interconnect network includes two switches. All Dell Fluid File System (FluidFS) controllers are connected to both interconnect switches. These employ dual links for redundancy and load balancing.

In order to achieve complete data distribution and to maintain high availability, each of the controllers in the Dell FluidFS cluster system must have access to all other controllers in the system. The interconnect network achieves this goal. The interconnect network provides the connectivity for Dell FluidFS clustering, including the heartbeat monitor, transferring data, mirroring information between the controllers caches and distributing data evenly across all LUNs in the system.