Tom, what's the significance of the ping_node? There is still something not right about my understanding here and it relates to the requirement of the 2 aux connections.

I need to understand if the aux connections for both nodes in the cluster - must they all reside in the same subnet?

How does each node communicate with the ping_node? Is it through the aux connection? If so - then this means that all of a nodes interfaces they must be in the same subnet as the ping_node.

I ask this because no matter what I do, it always starts in a degraded mode (e.g. running on one Aux connection)