How many cluster switch (es) are required for a NetApp cluster?

A single cluster switch creates a single point of failure on the cluster interconnect, which violates NetApp's supported and recommended configuration requirements.

NetApp clustered ONTAP requires two dedicated cluster switches to form the cluster interconnect network used for node-to-node communication. Two switches provide path redundancy so that a single switch failure does not disrupt inter-node traffic, which is critical for storage failover and cluster operations.

Four switches is not a valid standard cluster switch configuration; two switches satisfy both redundancy and NetApp's supported topology requirements.

Six switches has no basis in NetApp cluster interconnect design and does not correspond to any supported cluster topology.