Planning Irf Fabric Setup; Planning Irf Fabric Size And The Installation Site; Determining The Master Switch And Planning Irf Member Ids; Planning Irf Topology And Connections - HP FlexFabric 7900 Series Installation Manual

Step
2. Install IRF member switches.
3. Power on the switches.
4. Configure basic IRF settings on
each switch in standalone mode.
5. Connect the physical IRF ports.
6. Enable IRF mode.
7. Verify the IRF settings.
8. Configure other settings in IRF
mode.

Planning IRF fabric setup

This section describes issues that an IRF fabric setup plan must cover.

Planning IRF fabric size and the installation site

Choose switch models and identify the number of required IRF member switches, depending on the user
density and upstream bandwidth requirements. The switching capacity of an IRF fabric equals the total
switching capacities of all member switches.
Plan the installation site depending on your network solution, as follows:
• Place all IRF member switches in one rack for centralized high-density access.
Distribute the IRF member switches in different racks to implement the ToR access solution for a data
•
center.
An IRF fabric is highly scalable. After an IRF fabric has been set up, you can add new members to the
fabric.

Determining the master switch and planning IRF member IDs

An IRF fabric two member roles: master and standby. When devices form an IRF fabric, they elect a
master to manage and control the IRF fabric, and all the other devices back up the master.
Determine which switch you want to use as the master for managing all member switches in the IRF fabric.
You can affect the election result by assigning a high member priority to the intended master switch. For
more information about master election, see HP FlexFabric 7900 Switch Series IRF Configuration Guide.
Prepare an IRF member ID assignment scheme. An IRF fabric uses member IDs to uniquely identify and
manage its members, and you must assign each IRF member switch a unique member ID.

Planning IRF topology and connections

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 at least one physical port to it.
Description
See "Preparing for installation" and
N/A
See HP FlexFabric 7900 Switch Series IRF Configuration Guide.
Connect physical IRF ports on switches.
See HP FlexFabric 7900 Switch Series IRF Configuration Guide.
Log in to the IRF fabric at any member switch and verify that you can
configure all member switches as if they were one node.
See HP FlexFabric 7900 Switch Series IRF Configuration Guide.
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"Installing the switch."