In NetApp ONTAP, SnapMirror and SnapVault intercluster replication workflows depend entirely on dedicated intercluster LIFs to establish data transport sessions between peered clusters. A foundational architectural rule of ONTAP cluster peering is full-mesh node connectivity: every individual node in a cluster participating in an intercluster relationship must host at least one active intercluster LIF in each IPspace designated for cluster peering.

When Cluster A is expanded by adding a new High Availability (HA) pair (two physical nodes), the newly added nodes do not automatically receive intercluster LIFs. If volumes hosted on the new HA pair are replicated to destination clusters, replication transfers fail because the new nodes lack endpoints to communicate with Cluster B and Cluster C. Furthermore, because Cluster A uses multi-tenant network isolation via dedicated IPspaces (IPspace AB for Cluster B peering, and IPspace AC for Cluster C peering), each new node in Cluster A must have an intercluster LIF provisioned within each IPspace:

Creating two intercluster LIFs (one per new node) in IPspace AB restores connectivity to Cluster B (Statement B).

Creating two intercluster LIFs (one per new node) in IPspace AC restores connectivity to Cluster C (Statement C).

Management LIFs handle administrative CLI, REST, and System Manager traffic; they play no role in data replication paths.