Irf Overview; Hardware Compatibility; Irf Benefits; Application Scenario - H3C S5120-EI Series Configuration Manual

IRF overview

The H3C 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

Among the
S5120-52C-PWR-EI support IRF. You can establish an IRF fabric among these S5120-EI switches, but must
purchase at least one 10-GE interface card listed in
requirements."

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.

Application scenario

Figure 1 shows an IRF fabric that is formed by two switches, which appear as a single node to the upper
and lower layer devices.
S5120-EI switches, S5120-28C-EI, S5120-52C-EI,
"IRF physical port restrictions and cabling
1
S5120-28C-PWR-EI, and