Planning Irf Topology And Connections - HP FlexFabric 5950 Series Installation Manual

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, the logical interfaces for the connections
between IRF member switches. Each IRF member switch has two IRF ports: IRF-port 1 and IRF-port
2. To use an IRF port, you must bind a minimum of one physical port to it.
When connecting two neighboring IRF member switches, you must connect the physical ports of
IRF-port 1 on one switch to the physical ports of IRF-port 2 on the other switch.
The IRF port connections in the two figures are for illustration only, and more connection methods
are available.
Figure 46 IRF fabric in daisy chain topology
1
2
3
IRF-port1
1
IRF-port1
IRF-port2
2
37
IRF-port2
3