Cluster incorrectly identifies all cluster networks as down if one cluster network is lost

Consider the following scenario:

• You set a failover cluster on some computers that have at least one other network adapter that uses an Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA) address.
• You configured multiple cluster networks.
• You lose one of the cluster networks because of unexpected issues or planned maintenance.

In this scenario, all cluster networks, not only the problem cluster network, are identified as down.

IPv4 link-local addresses resemble one another. If you have IPv4 link-local addresses on multiple subnets, the cluster service can't tell those subnets from one another. Therefore, the service can't provide multiple intra-cluster communication routes to the Network Fault-Tolerant (NetFT) virtual adapter.

Cluster Validation warns you about IPv4 link-local addresses. This means that Cluster Validation would flag a network interface on which it found no IP addresses or subnets other than IPv4 link-local addresses.

To resolve this issue, don't use another network interface together with IPv4 link local (APIPA) addresses on your cluster nodes.