Planning Irf Topology And Connections - HP 3600 v2 Series Installation Manual

NOTE:
IRF member switches will automatically elect a master. You can affect the election result by assigning a
high member priority to the intended master switch. For more information about master election, see the
HP 3600 v2 Switch Series IRF Configuration Guide
Prepare an IRF member ID assignment scheme. An IRF fabric uses member IDs to uniquely identify and
manage its members, and you must assign each IRF member switch a unique member ID.

Planning IRF topology and connections

You can create an IRF fabric in daisy chain topology, or more reliably, ring topology. In ring topology,
the failure of one IRF link does not cause the IRF fabric to split as in daisy chain topology. Rather, the IRF
fabric changes to a daisy chain topology without interrupting network services.
You connect the IRF member switches through IRF ports. An IRF port is a logical interface for the internal
connection between IRF member switches. Each IRF member switch has two IRF ports: IRF-port 1 and
IRF-port 2. An IRF port is activated when you bind a physical port to it.
When connecting IRF member switches, you must connect the physical ports of IRF-port1 on one switch
to the physical ports of IRF-port2 on its neighbor switch.
The 3600 v2 switches can provide IRF connections through the GE Ethernet ports and GE SFP ports, and
you can bind several GE ports to an IRF port for increased bandwidth and availability.
NOTE:
• Figure 37
The IRF port connections in the two figures are for illustration only, and more connection methods are
•
available.
Figure 37 IRF fabric in daisy chain topology
and Figure 38 show the topologies for an IRF fabric made up of three 3600-48 v2 SI Switch.
.
32