Irf Link Redundancy; Multichassis Link Aggregation; Feature And Irf Mode Compatibility; Mad And Irf Domain Restrictions - HP FlexFabric 12500 Series Configuration Manual

Suppose you have four chassis: A, B, C, and D. IRF-port 1 and IRF-port 2 are represented by A1 and A2
on chassis A, represented by B1 and B2 on chassis B, and so on. To connect the four chassis into a ring
topology of A-B-C-D(A), the IRF link cabling scheme must be one of the following:
• A1-B2, B1-C2, C1-D2, and D1-A2.
A2-B1, B2-C1, C2-D1, and D2-A1.
•

IRF link redundancy

When you configure an IRF fabric, follow these redundancy restrictions and guidelines:
• For link redundancy and load sharing, bind up to 12 physical ports to one IRF port.
Physical ports bound to an IRF port can be located on different cards.
•
HP recommends using multicard IRF links to avoid a card removal causing an IRF split.
•

Multichassis link aggregation

For high availability, connect a downstream device to each IRF member device, and assign the links to
one link aggregation group. See

Feature and IRF mode compatibility

To form an IRF fabric:
• All member devices in the IRF fabric must use the same ACL hardware mode. For more information
about hardware-based ACLs, see ACL and QoS Configuration Guide.
All member devices in the IRF fabric must have the same irf mode enhanced command
•
configuration.
All member devices in the IRF fabric must work in the same system operating mode. For more
•
information about the system operating mode, see Fundamentals Configuration Guide.

MAD and IRF domain restrictions

When you configure an IRF fabric, follow these MAD and IRF domain restrictions and guidelines:
If LACP MAD, ARP MAD, or ND MAD runs between two IRF fabrics, assign each fabric a unique IRF
•
domain ID. (For BFD MAD, this task is optional.)
An IRF fabric has only one IRF domain ID.
•
You can change the IRF domain ID by using the following commands: irf domain, mad enable,
mad arp enable, or mad nd enable. The IRF domain IDs configured by using these commands
overwrite each other.
In an MDC environment, if you change the IRF domain ID in one MDC, the IRF domain IDs in
all other MDCs change automatically. The irf domain command is available only on the default
MDC. The mad enable, mad arp enable, and mad nd enable commands are available on any
MDCs.
• LACP MAD handles collisions differently than BFD MAD, ARP MAD, and ND MAD. To avoid
conflicts, do not use LACP MAD together with any of those mechanisms in an IRF fabric. However,
you can configure BFD MAD, ARP MAD, and ND MAD together in an IRF fabric for prompt IRF split
detection.
Figure 22.
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