text: If one application finishes its background copy more quickly than the other application, 
  MM/GM still refuses to grant access to its auxiliary volumes even though it is safe in this case. 
  The MM/GM policy is to refuse access to the entire consistency group if any part of it is 
  inconsistent. Stand-alone relationships and consistency groups share a common 
  configuration and state model. All of the relationships in a non-empty consistency group have 
  the same state as the consistency group. 
  
  **11.6.4 Remote copy intercluster communication**
  
  In the traditional Fibre Channel, the intercluster communication between systems in a 
  MM/GM partnership is performed over the SAN. This section describes this communication 
  path. 
  
  For more information about intercluster communication between systems in an IP 
  partnership, see 11.8.6, “States of IP partnership” on page 554. 
  
  **Zoning**
  At least two FC ports of every node of each system must communicate with each other to 
  create the partnership. Switch zoning is critical to facilitate intercluster communication. 
  
  **Intercluster communication channels**
  When an IBM Spectrum Virtualize system partnership is defined on a pair of systems, the 
  following intercluster communication channels are established: 
  
  (cid:2) A single control channel, which is used to exchange and coordinate configuration 
  
  information 
  
  (cid:2) I/O channels between each of these nodes in the systems 