Taskiss wrote:
GigE uses all the pairs, but I don't know where I'd ever use a GigE in a crossover configuration... everything I've done in the last 10 years connect switches via fiber, not copper, and home stuff auto-connects.
I have a little two-node cluster at work for basic fault-tolerance. The have three 1Gb NICs -- one for the LAN, one for the SAN, and one is a crossover between the nodes. They do DRBD, cluster traffic/heartbeats, and Xen migrations over the crossover cable. You won't see that in big iron environments because at that level, no one does two-node clusters (arguably not a "real" cluster, since there's no quorum). It's a fairly common setup for simple small-to-medium business clusters like this, though.
Edit: Hah, wow -- I just noticed that quote. I didn't realize that *all* standards-compliant Gb Ethernet devices were guaranteed to auto-cross. Welp, The More You Know(TM)...