managing cluster membership and providing and managing locks in the switches forming the interconnecting network . to manage the cluster membership , a zone is created , with indicated members existing in the zone and the zone being managed by the switches . the nodes communicate their membership events , such as alive messages , using an api to work with the switch to which they are attached . the desired membership algorithm is executed by the switches , preferably in a distributed manner . each switch then enforces the membership policies , including preventing operations from evicted nodes . this greatly simplifies the programs used on the nodes and unburdens them from many time consuming tasks , thus providing improved cluster performance . in a like manner , the switches in the fabric manage the resource locks . the nodes send their lock requests , such as creation and ownership requests , to the switch to which they are connected using an api . the switches then perform the desired lock operation and provide a response to the requesting node . again , this greatly simplifies the programs used on the nodes and unburdens them from many time consuming activities , providing improved cluster performance .