Thanks!

"A Leaf Node sends periodic heartbeat messages to its associated Hub Node, which is different from the heartbeat messages that occur between Hub Nodes."

This was new for me. I knew about the heartbeat beetween leaf node an hubnode, and that leaf is evicted.

But I thought it is the same heartbeat as the one between the hub-nodes.

Oracle Flex ASM can use either the same private networks as Oracle Clusterware, or use its own dedicated private networks. Each network can be classified PUBLIC, ASM & PRIVATE, PRIVATE, or ASM.

Well, that the point nobody could figure out for me clearly, which might be a result of my poor english. :-(

I got this one:

The private network is for the cluster, such as heartbead an - on RAC - cluster interconnect.

The ASM Interface is for the a new comunication which comes with flex asm.

If an database instances runs on  an hubnode without ASM instance, any communication with the ASM instance (needed for example creating a datafile, logswitches) runs over the ASM interfaces.

On leaf nodes I read this:

• Use Indirect access to the Oracle ASM disks, where I/O is handled as a service for the client on a Hub Node.
• Submit disk service requests through the Oracle ASM network.

A leaf node needs data that is stored on ACFS.

So the IO runs from the leaf nodes the hub node it is connected to and the hubnode sends the requested data.

As this runs over the ASM interface (which should be a seperated interface in seperate network, NOT private)  it puts no load on private interfaces.

If you answer "yes"... well, you just made my day!

Thanks a lot