One embodiment disclosed relates to a method of status generation for a node
of a high-availability cluster. A heartbeat signal is sent from the node through
a network to the cluster. In addition, a current status of the node is determined,
and the status is sent out through a specialized interface to a next node. Another
embodiment disclosed relates to a method of cluster-wide management performed per
node. A heartbeat input received from the previous node is checked. Furthermore,
an up/down status input received from the previous node and a degraded status input
received from the previous node are also checked. Another embodiment disclosed
relates to a system for of a high-availability cluster. The system includes a general
inter-node communication network that is configured to carry signals including
heartbeat signals from the nodes. In addition, a separate inter-node communication
channel is included for communicating node status signals.
