Irf Overview; Hardware Compatibility; Irf Benefits; Application Scenario - HP 5900 Series Configuration Manual

IRF overview

HP Intelligent Resilient Framework (IRF) technology creates a large IRF fabric from multiple devices to
provide data center class availability and scalability. IRF virtualization technology offers processing
power, interaction, unified management, and uninterrupted maintenance of multiple devices.
This book describes IRF concepts and guides you through the IRF setup procedure.

Hardware compatibility

You can establish an IRF fabric that only comprises 5900 switches or 5920 switches, or establish a
heterogeneous IRF fabric that comprises both 5900 and 5920 switches.

IRF benefits

IRF delivers the following benefits:
• Simplified topology and easy management—An IRF fabric appears as one node and is accessible
at a single IP address on the network. You can use this IP address to log in at any member device
to manage all the members of the IRF fabric. In addition, you do not need to run the spanning tree
feature among the IRF members.
1:N redundancy—In an IRF fabric, one member works as the master to manage and control the
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entire IRF fabric, and all the other members process services while backing up the master. When the
master fails, all the other member devices elect a new master from among them to take over without
interrupting services.
IRF link aggregation—You can assign several physical links between neighboring members to their
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IRF ports to create a load-balanced aggregate IRF connection with redundancy.
Multichassis link aggregation—You can use the Ethernet link aggregation feature to aggregate the
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physical links between the IRF fabric and its upstream or downstream devices across the IRF
members.
Network scalability and resiliency—Processing capacity of an IRF fabric equals the total
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processing capacities of all the members. You can increase ports, network bandwidth, and
processing capacity of an IRF fabric simply by adding member devices without changing the
network topology.

Application scenario

Figure 1 shows an IRF fabric that comprises two devices, which appear as a single node to the upper and
lower layer devices.
1