How many ISL ports are required between the cluster interconnect switches when using CN1610 switches?

2 ISL ports fall below the minimum of 4 required for CN1610 switches and would not provide adequate bandwidth for cluster interconnect traffic.

The NetApp CN1610 reference configuration for clustered ONTAP specifies 4 ISL ports between the switch pair. This count is sufficient for the CN1610 platform's port density and provides the bandwidth needed for intra-cluster communication without exceeding the switch's design specifications.

6 ISL ports exceed the CN1610 documented requirement and do not reflect the validated reference configuration for this switch.

8 ISL ports is the requirement for Cisco Nexus switches, not for the NetApp CN1610 platform.

ISLs are mandatory between CN1610 cluster interconnect switches - omitting them would prevent proper inter-node communication across the cluster fabric.