Irf Overview; Hardware Compatibility; Irf Benefits - HP 5120-24G EI Configuration Manual

IRF overview

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

Hardware compatibility

In the HP 5120 EI Switch Series, only the following switch models can form an IRF fabric, and they must
have expansion interface cards listed in
• HP 5120-24G EI Switch with 2 Interface Slots (JE068A)
HP 5120-24G EI TAA Switch with 2 Interface Slots (JG245A)
•
HP 5120-48G EI Switch with 2 Interface Slots (JE069A)
•
HP 5120-48G EI TAA Switch with 2 Interface Slots (JG246A)
•
HP 5120-24G-PoE+ EI Switch with 2 Interface Slots (JG236A)
•
• HP 5120-24G-PoE+ EI TAA Switch with 2 Interface Slots (JG247A)
HP 5120-48G-PoE+ EI Switch with 2 Interface Slots (JG237A)
•
HP 5120-48G-PoE+ EI TAA Switch with 2 Interface Slots (JG248A)
•

IRF benefits

IRF provides 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
•
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
•
IRF ports to create a load-balanced aggregate IRF connection with redundancy.
• Multiple-chassis link aggregation—You can use the Ethernet link aggregation feature to aggregate
the 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
•
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.
"IRF physical port restrictions and cabling
1
requirements":