Methods and systems for exchanging reachability information and switching between redundant interfaces in a network cluster

Methods and systems for exchanging reachability information and for switching between redundant interfaces in a network cluster are disclosed. Nodes in the network cluster are connected via redundant links and exchange reachability messages at periodic intervals. Each node includes a kernel routing table used to route messages and a reachability application routing table for storing reachability information used to update entries in the kernel routing table. Each node executes a predetermined algorithm for selecting entries in the reachability application routing table to be written to the kernel routing table.