HP A7500 Switch Series Configuration Guide Part number: 5998-1865 Software version: Release 6626 and later Document version: 6W101-20111130...
Page 2
The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty.
Contents Hardware compatibility ···················································································································································· 1 Switch model compatibility ····································································································································· 1 Card compatibility ···················································································································································· 1 Hardware compatibility for an IRF fabric with three or four members ······························································· 1 IRF overview ······································································································································································· 1 Benefits ······································································································································································ 1 Application scenario ················································································································································...
Page 4
Index ··········································································································································································· 56 ...
Switches running a release prior to Release 6635 support establishing an IRF fabric with up to two members. Hardware compatibility Switch model compatibility Among the A7500 Switch Series, these models support IRF: A7503, A7506, A7506-V, and A7510. • Only switches of the same models can form an IRF. •...
interruption. You can perform link aggregation not only for IRF links but also for physical links between the IRF fabric and its upper or lower layer devices for link redundancy. • Network scalability and resiliency. You can increase ports, network bandwidth, and processing capability of an IRF fabric simply by adding member switches.
Basic concepts Figure 2 IRF implementation schematic diagram (with two member switches) Device A and Device B in Figure 2 form an IRF fabric, which has four MPUs (one active and three standby) and two interface cards. The IRF fabric manages both the physical and software resources of Device A and Device B.
Figure 3 IRF implementation schematic diagram (with four member switches) Device A Device B (MemberID=1) (MemberID=2) Active MPU of the Active MPU of the member member Standby MPU of the Standby MPU of the member member IRF-Port1 IRF-Port2 IRF-Port2 IRF-Port1 Service Physical IRF Service...
Page 9
IRF member switch roles IRF uses two member switch roles: master and slave. When switches form an IRF fabric, they elect a master to manage the IRF fabric, and all other switches back up the master. When the master switch fails, the other switches automatically elect a new master from among them to avoid service interruption.
Figure 4 IRF partition IRF merge IRF merge occurs when two partitioned IRF fabrics re-unite or when you configure and connect two independent IRF fabrics to be one IRF fabric, as shown in Figure Figure 5 IRF merge Member priority Member priority determines the role of a member switch during the role election process.
Figure 6 IRF connections NOTE: The ring connection is supported only when the IRF fabric has three or four member switches. Topology collection, Master election, and IRF fabric management and maintenance. Connecting the IRF member switches Connection medium To establish an IRF fabric, physically connect the physical IRF ports of member switches. The switches use 10 GE optical ports as physical IRF ports.
IRF topology An IRF fabric typically adopts daisy chain connection or ring connection, as shown in Figure • A daisy chain connection is mainly used in a network where member switches are distributedly located. A ring connection is more reliable than the daisy chain connection. In a daisy chained IRF fabric, the •...
Master election Master election is held each time the topology changes, for example, when the IRF fabric is established, a new member switch is plugged in, the master switch fails or is removed, or the partitioned IRF fabrics merge. The master is elected based on the following rules in descending order: The current master, even if a new member has a higher priority.
topology database to determine whether the leaving switch is the master. If yes, the member switch starts a master election and updates its IRF topology database. If the leaving switch is not a master, the member switch directly updates its IRF topology database. NOTE: An IRF port goes down only when all its physical IRF ports are down.
Page 15
IRF ports may affect the operation of the switch (for example, causing IRF fabric partition, or IRF fabric merge). Although you can configure the three parameters in either of the two ways, they have different effects. HP recommends this IRF fabric establishment procedure: Plan the network, and decide the master switch, IRF member IDs, and physical IRF ports.
Page 16
Task switch in standalone mode Binding physical ports to IRF ports Saving configuration to the startup configuration file Connecting cables and make sure that the physical IRF ports are interconnected. Switching operating mode Accessing the active MPU of an IRF fabric Accessing an IRF fabric Accessing a standby MPU of an IRF fabric...
Page 17
Task Configuring a description for a member switch Configuring load sharing criteria for IRF links...
Page 18
Task Configuring load sharing criteria for IRF links When an IRF port is bound with two or more physical IRF ports, there are multiple IRF links among IRF fabric Determine how traffic is load-shared among members by configuring load sharing crite The criteria can be information carried in packets, such as IP addresses, MAC addre combination of them.
Task Enabling automatic system software updating Setting the IRF link down report delay Configuring MAD detection IRF configuration fast recovery Pre-configuring an IRF member switch in standalone mode You can configure the IRF ports, member ID, and member priority for the switch when it is operating in standalone mode.
The A7500 switch uses 10 GE optical ports, which are on the main processing unit (MPU), or on SC, SD, or EB card, as physical IRF ports to perform IRF connection. For more information about LPUs providing 10 HP A7500 Switch Series Installation Guide GE optical ports, see To establish IRF connection, you must assign the physical ports that connect IRF member switches to IRF ports.
Saving configuration to the startup configuration file Follow these steps to save the current configuration to the startup configuration file: To do… Use the command… Remarks Required Save the current configuration to save [ safely ] [ force ] the startup configuration file Available in any view.
NOTE: When you switch the operating mode, the switch automatically reboots to make the change effective. • If the member ID of the switch is not set, you must first set the member ID for the switch, and then execute •...
To do… Use the command… Remarks Required By default, you are placed at the Log in to a standby MPU of an IRF irf switch-to chassis chassis-number CLI of the active MPU of the IRF fabric slot slot-number fabric when you log in to the IRF fabric.
Figure 9 A network that comprises two IRF domains Core network IRF 1 (domain 10) Switch A Switch B IRF link Switch D Switch C IRF 2 (domain 20) IRF link Access network Assigning a domain ID to an IRF fabric Follow these steps to assign a domain ID to an IRF fabric: To do…...
Follow these steps to modify a member ID for a member switch: To do… Use the command… Remarks Enter system view system-view — Optional The switch has no default ID in Modify a member ID for a irf member member-id renumber standalone mode.
To do… Use the command… Remarks Required By default, no physical ports are port group interface interface-type Bind a physical port to the IRF bound to any IRF port. interface-number [ mode { enhanced | port Repeat this step to assign normal } ] multiple physical ports to the IRF port for link redundancy.
To do… Use the command… Remarks Enter system view system-view — Optional Enable auto reboot for IRF fabric irf auto-merge enable merge Disabled by default. NOTE: The auto reboot function does not take effect on the IRF fabric merge caused by binding an IRF port with a physical IRF port in IRF mode.
Configuring global load sharing criteria Follow these steps to configure the global IRF link load sharing criteria: To do… Use the command… Remarks Enter system view system-view — Optional By default, the global IRF link load sharing criteria are source irf-port load-sharing mode or destination MAC addresses Configure the global IRF link load...
Follow these steps to specify the preservation time of the bridge MAC address of an IRF fabric: To do… Use the command… Remarks Enter system view system-view — Enable the IRF fabric to preserve its bridge MAC address irf mac-address persistent always permanently even after the master Optional leaves...
Setting the IRF link down report delay You can avoid link flapping causing frequent IRF splits and merges during a short time by configuring the IRF ports to delay reporting link down events. An IRF port thus works as follows: If the IRF link changes from up to down, the port does not immediately report the change to the IRF •...
Page 31
The intermediate switch must be an HP switch capable of handling extended LACPDUs that carry the Active ID field. For more information about LACP and the support of the switch for extended LACPDUs, see Layer 2—LAN Switching Configuration Guide. CAUTION: If the intermediate switch is in an IRF fabric, you must assign this fabric a different domain ID than the LACP MAD-enabled IRF fabric to avoid false detection of IRF partition.
Page 32
To do… Use the command… Remarks Required if the intermediate device is an IRF fabric. Assign a domain ID to the IRF Irf domain domain-id fabric By default, the domain ID of an IRF fabric is 0. Enter Layer 2 Create an interface bridge-aggregation aggregate...
Page 33
VLAN. In VLAN interface view, assign different IP addresses on the same network segment for different member switches. CAUTION: A Layer 3 interface used for BFD MAD must be dedicated. Do not configure any other services on them. Otherwise, both the configured services and the BFD MAD detection function can be affected. Figure 11 Network diagram Configuring BFD MAD detection Perform the following tasks to configure BFD MAD detection:...
Page 34
To do… Use the command… Remarks interface interface-type Enter Ethernet interface view — interface-number Access port port access vlan vlan-id Required You can select one approach Assign the port Trunk port port trunk permit vlan vlan-id according to the port type. to the BFD MAD VLAN BFD MAD detection has no...
Page 35
To do… Use the command… Remarks Required Configure a service port not to mad exclude interface interface-type When an IRF fabric transits to shut down when the IRF fabric interface-number recovery state, all its service transits to recovery state ports are shut down by default. Manually recovering an IRF fabric An IRF link failure causes an IRF fabric to divide into two IRF fabrics and multi-active collision occurs.
For a switch that transitioned to recovery state due to the multi-active collision, if you need to bring up one of its port that are already shut down, HP recommends that you execute the mad restore command to recover the switch and make it operate in the active state instead of executing the undo shutdown command to perform a manual recovery.
Configuration procedures Scenario I: Member switch 1 has one MPU, and it is corrupted. Member switch 2 has two MPUs. • Modify the member ID of the standby MPU on member switch 2 to make it consistent with that of member switch 1.
To do… Use the command… Remarks display irf-port load-sharing mode [ irf-port Display the load sharing criteria [ member-id/port-number ] ] [ | Available in any view for IRF links { begin | exclude | include } regular-expression ] display switchover state [ chassis Display the master/slave chassis-number slot slot-number ] switchover states of a members of...
Page 39
To address the requirements for high availability, ease of management and maintenance, use IRF2 • technology to create an IRF fabric with Device A and Device B at the access layer. • To offset the risk of IRF fabric partition, configure MAD to detect multi-active collisions. In this example, LACP MAD is adopted because the number of access devices tends to be large.
Page 40
[Sysname] irf member 2 Info: Member ID change will take effect after the switch reboots and operates in IRF mode. [Sysname] interface ten-gigabitethernet 3/0/1 [Sysname-Ten-GigabitEthernet3/0/1] shutdown [Sysname-Ten-GigabitEthernet3/0/1] quit [Sysname] irf-port 1 [Sysname-irf-port1] port group interface ten-gigabitethernet 3/0/1 [Sysname-irf-port1] quit [Sysname] interface ten-gigabitethernet 3/0/1 [Sysname-Ten-GigabitEthernet3/0/1] undo shutdown [Sysname-Ten-GigabitEthernet3/0/1] quit # Save the current configuration to the startup configuration file.
Page 41
ACTIVE! %May 7 09:23:16:322 2010 HP LAGG/5/LAGG_ACTIVE: Member port GigabitEthernet2/3/0/1 of aggregation group BAGG1 becomes ACTIVE. %May 7 09:23:16:370 2010 HP IFNET/3/LINK_UPDOWN: Bridge-Aggregation2 link status is UP. %May 7 09:23:16:381 2010 HP IFNET/3/LINK_UPDOWN: Vlan-interface1 link status is UP. %May 7 09:23:16:391 2010 HP IFNET/5/LINEPROTO_UPDOWN: Line protocol on the interface Vlan-interface1 is UP.
IRF port 2 is up. #May 7 09:30:36:566 2010 HP DEVM/1/BOARD INSERTED: # Execute the display irf command. You can see that the IRF fabric is recovered, Device B is the master and Device A is the slave. <Sysname> display irf...
Page 43
Figure 15 Network diagram Device A Device B XGE1/3/0/1 XGE2/3/0/1 (IRF-port1/2) (IRF-port2/1) GE1/4/0/1 GE2/4/0/1 BFD MAD link …… Configuration considerations Device A is located at the distribution layer of the network. To improve the forwarding capability at • this layer, you must add extra devices. In this example, Device B is added. To address the requirements for high availability, scalability, and ease of management and •...
Page 44
[Sysname-irf-port2] quit [Sysname] interface ten-gigabitethernet 3/0/1 [Sysname-Ten-GigabitEthernet3/0/1] undo shutdown [Sysname-Ten-GigabitEthernet3/0/1] quit # Specify the priority of Device A as 10 to make sure that it is elected as the master when the IRF fabric is established, and save the configuration. [DeviceA] irf priority 10 # Save the current configuration to the startup configuration file.
Page 45
When the IRF links fail, the system outputs error messages for detecting multi-active devices and prompts you to repair the links. %May 6 15:10:05:477 2010 HP MAD/1/MAD_COLLISION_DETECTED: Multi-active devices detected, please fix it. Because the member ID of Device B is 2, when the MAD mechanism detects errors, the state of Device B changes to recovery and all ports on Device B except for the reserved ones are shut down.
Reboot device by command. %May 6 15:31:09:734 2010 HP DEVM/5/SYSTEM_REBOOT: System is rebooting now. # After device reboot, Device B re-joins the IRF fabric. You can use the display irf command to view the topology information about the IRF fabric.
Page 47
Configuration considerations To increase the number of access ports, you must add extra devices. In this example, Device B, • Device C, and Device D are added. • To address the requirements for high availability, scalability, and ease of management and maintenance, use IRF2 technology to create an IRF fabric with Device A, Device B, Device C, and Device D at the access layer.
Page 48
# Set the member ID of Device B to 2, create IRF ports 1 and 2, and bind them to physical ports Ten-GigabitEthernet 3/0/2 and Ten-GigabitEthernet 3/0/1 respectively. <Sysname> system-view [Sysname] irf member 2 Info: Member ID change will take effect after the switch reboots and operates in IRF mode. [Sysname] irf-port 1 [Sysname-irf-port1] port group interface ten-gigabitethernet 3/0/2 [Sysname-irf-port1] quit...
Page 49
<Sysname> system-view [Sysname] chassis convert mode irf The device will switch to IRF mode and reboot. You are recommended to save the current running configuration and specify the configuration file for the next startup. Continue? [Y/N]:y want convert content next startup configuration file...
Page 50
[Sysname] interface bridge-aggregation 2 [Sysname-Bridge-Aggregation2] link-aggregation mode dynamic [Sysname-Bridge-Aggregation2] mad enable [Sysname-Bridge-Aggregation2] quit # Assign ports GigabitEthernet 1/4/0/2, GigabitEthernet 2/4/0/2, GigabitEthernet 3/3/0/1, and GigabitEthernet 4/3/0/1 to the aggregate interface for LACP MAD detection. [Sysname] interface gigabitethernet 1/4/0/2 [Sysname-GigabitEthernet1/4/0/2] port link-aggregation group 2 [Sysname-GigabitEthernet1/4/0/2] quit [Sysname] interface gigabitethernet 2/4/0/1 [Sysname-GigabitEthernet2/4/0/1] port link-aggregation group 2...
Page 51
277872640 becomes ACTIVE! %May 7 09:23:16:322 2010 HP LAGG/5/LAGG_ACTIVE: Member port GigabitEthernet2/4/0/1 of aggregation group BAGG2 becomes ACTIVE. %May 7 09:23:16:370 2010 HP IFNET/3/LINK_UPDOWN: Bridge-Aggregation2 link status is UP. %May 7 09:23:16:381 2010 HP IFNET/3/LINK_UPDOWN: Vlan-interface1 link status is UP. %May 7 09:23:16:391 2010 HP IFNET/5/LINEPROTO_UPDOWN: Line protocol on the interface Vlan-interface1 is UP.
The Bridge MAC of the IRF is: 0023-895f-954f Auto upgrade : yes Mac persistent : no Domain ID Auto merge : no BFD MAD detection-enabled IRF configuration example (with four member switches) Network requirements The network as shown in Figure 17 is outgrowing the forwarding capability of the existing core switch, Device A.
Page 53
To offset the risk of IRF fabric partition, configure MAD to detect multi-active collisions. In this • example, BFD MAD is adopted. • Specify priorities for member switches to make sure that Device A is elected as the master of the IRF fabric.
Page 54
[Sysname] irf-port 1 [Sysname-irf-port1] port group interface ten-gigabitethernet 2/0/1 [Sysname-irf-port1] quit [Sysname] irf-port 2 [Sysname-irf-port2] port group interface ten-gigabitethernet 2/0/2 # Save the current configuration to the startup configuration file. [Sysname] quit <Sysname> save # Connect Device B to Device A as shown in Figure # Switch the operating mode of Device B to IRF.
Page 55
Please wait... Saving the converted configuration file to the main board succeeded. Slot 1: Saving the converted configuration file succeeded. Now rebooting, please wait... Device C joins the IRF fabric after reboot. Configure Device D # Set the member ID of Device D to 4, create IRF ports 1 and 2, and bind them to physical ports Ten-GigabitEthernet 2/0/1 and Ten-GigabitEthernet 2/0/2 respectively.
Page 56
Device B and Device D. In addition, IRF link status error and card failure messages will be displayed. The following takes IRF 1 for example: %May 6 15:10:05:477 2010 HP MAD/1/MAD_COLLISION_DETECTED: Multi-active devices detected, please fix it. Because the master member ID of IRF 2 is bigger, when the MAD mechanism detects errors, the state of IRF 2 changes to recovery and all ports on the member devices except for the reserved ones are shut down.
Reboot device by command. %May 6 15:31:09:734 2010 HP DEVM/5/SYSTEM_REBOOT: System is rebooting now. # After IRF 2 starts up, it re-joins IRF 1. You can use the display irf topology command to view the topology information of the IRF fabric.
Page 58
Switch Slot Role Priority CPU-Mac Description Master 00e0-fc0a-15e0 DeviceA Slave 00e0-fc0f-8c02 DeviceA Slave 00e0-fc0f-15e1 DeviceB Slave 00e0-fc0f-15e2 DeviceB -------------------------------------------------- * indicates the device is the master. + indicates the device through which the user logs in. The Bridge MAC of the IRF is: 000f-e26a-58ed Auto upgrade : no Mac persistent...
Page 59
The device will switch to stand-alone mode and reboot. You are recommended to save the current running configuration and specify the configuration file for the next startup. Continue? [Y/N]:y Do you want to convert the content of the next startup configuration file flash:/vrpcfg.cfg to make it available in stand-alone mode? [Y/N]:y Please wait.....
Page 60
Index A B C D E I P S Accessing an IRF fabric,18 IRF configuration fast recovery,32 IRF fabric configuration examples,34 IRF fabric configuration task list,10 Basic concepts,3 overview,1 Configuring IRF member switches in IRF mode,19 Pre-configuring an IRF member switch in standalone mode,15 Displaying and maintaining an IRF fabric,33...
Related information Documents To find related documents, browse to the Manuals page of the HP Business Support Center website: http://www.hp.com/support/manuals For related documentation, navigate to the Networking section, and select a networking category. •...
Conventions This section describes the conventions used in this documentation set. Command conventions Convention Description Boldface Bold text represents commands and keywords that you enter literally as shown. Italic Italic text represents arguments that you replace with actual values. Square brackets enclose syntax choices (keywords or arguments) that are optional. Braces enclose a set of required syntax choices separated by vertical bars, from which { x | y | ...
Page 63
Network topology icons Represents a generic network device, such as a router, switch, or firewall. Represents a routing-capable device, such as a router or Layer 3 switch. Represents a generic switch, such as a Layer 2 or Layer 3 switch, or a router that supports Layer 2 forwarding and other Layer 2 features.