Supported network design

[Eric SAUBIGNAC]

Bonjour,

In a cluster environment, I have to face today a situation where I am missing some lan cards to work properly.

I mean, I have 2 IP network to secure and to monitor with MCSG and a third IP network that doesn't need to be protected, no more monitored [ maybe a forth one, don't know yet ] A minimum number of NICs to achieve this goal would be 5, but I have only 4 NICs to deal with ... :-(

So I wonder If I may use vlan with MC/SG (never had to do that before) and if yes what are the limitations ?

The design I plan to do, assuming  NETWORK_IP_1 and NETWORK_IP_2 are protected and monitored by MCSG and NETWORK_IP_3 doesn't need :

NIC          | VLAN         | HP-UX Instance | IP NETWORK   | MC/ServiceGuard  | HEARTBEAT
             |              |                |              |                  |
NIC1         | native vlan1 | LAN0           | NETWORK_IP_1 | PRIMARY          | HEARTBEAT_IP
NIC2         | native vlan1 | LAN1           | *            | STANDBY for NIC1 | *
             |              |                |              |                  |
NIC3         | native vlan2 | LAN2           | NETWORK_IP_2 | PRIMARY          | HEARTBEAT_IP
NIC4         | native vlan2 | LAN3           | *            | STANDBY for NIC3 | *
             |              |                |              |                  |
NIC2         | tagged vlan3 | LAN5000        | NETWORK_IP_3 | n/a              | n/a

Advantages :

- No need for a dedicated heartbeat network, since heartbeat is sent on 2 independant IP_Network
- The third network, in normal working conditions, is bound to a standby card.

So my questions about this design is :

- is it supported
- what happens to lan5000 when NIC1 is failed to NIC2
- same question when NIC1 returns to normal operation
- any other idea ...

Of course, I will RTFM but, because I am not sure to find an exact answer to my concern, your advice will be greatly appreciated

Thanks in advance

Eric