Planning Irf Fabric Setup; Planning Irf Fabric Size And The Installation Site; Identifying The Master Switch And Planning Irf Member Ids - HP A5120 EI Series Installation Manual

To set up an IRF fabric:
Task
1. Plan IRF fabric setup
2. Install
switches
3. Connect the grounding
cable and power cords
4. Power on the switches
5. Install interface cards
6. Configure
settings
7. Connect the physical IRF
ports

Planning IRF fabric setup

Planning IRF fabric size and the installation site

Choose switch models and identify the number of required IRF member switches, based on the user
density and upstream bandwidth requirements. The switching capacity of an IRF fabric equals the total
switching capacities of all member switches.
You can increase an IRF fabric's switching capacity by adding a switch without any topology change or
replacement.

Identifying the master switch and planning IRF member IDs

NOTE:
IRF member switches automatically elect a master. You can affect the election result by assigning a high
member priority to the intended master switch. For more information about master election, see the IRF
configuration guide for your switch.
Complete the following planning tasks:
 Determine which switch you want to use as the master for managing all member switches in the IRF
fabric.
An IRF fabric has only one master switch. You use the command line interface of the master switch
to configure and manage all member switches in the IRF fabric.
Description
Plan the installation site and IRF fabric setup parameters:

Planning IRF fabric size and the installation site

Identifying the master switch and planning IRF member IDs

Planning IRF topology and connections

Identifying physical IRF ports on the member switches

Planning the cabling scheme
IRF member
See "Installing the
See "Grounding the
N/A
This step is required only for the A5120 EI switches.
See "Installing/removing an interface card (A5120 EI switches
basic IRF
See "Configuring basic IRF
See "Connecting the physical IRF
All switches except the master switch automatically reboot, and the IRF
fabric is established.
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