Figure 14 illustrates an example of a 3-node cluster configured with a single-link full mesh storage network interconnect. External network traffic utilizes the LOM/rNDC/OCP integrated network adapter, while storage network traffic utilizes a QLogic FastLinQ 25GbE PCIe adapter per server node. In this case, the management network offers some redundancy in the case of a storage network connectivity (cable or port) failure.

Figure 14.          3 Node Single-link full mesh

Single-link full mesh topologies rely on the management network for storage and live migration redundancy purposes. The management network is also shared with VM traffic. During failure scenarios, and high throughput network load, contention between these three traffic types has the potential to degrade the cluster. For this reason, Dell EMC recommends a dual-link full mesh network interconnect for high performance storage configurations and workloads.