Irf Overview; Hardware Compatibility; Irf Benefits; Application Scenario - HP 12500 SERIES Configuration Manual
Routing switch
Hide thumbs
Also See for 12500 SERIES:
- Configuration manual (402 pages) ,
- Network management and monitoring command reference (320 pages) ,
- Command reference manual (157 pages)
Table of Contents
Advertisement
IRF overview
The HP Intelligent Resilient Framework (IRF) technology creates a large switching system called an
"IRF fabric" from multiple devices to provide data center class availability and scalability. IRF
virtualization technology offers processing power, interaction, unified management, and
uninterrupted maintenance of multiple devices.
This book describes IRF concepts and guides you through the IRF setup procedure.
Hardware compatibility
An HP 12500 switch can form an IRF fabric only with devices in the same series.
IRF benefits
IRF delivers 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 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 comprises two devices, which appear as a single node to the
upper and lower layer devices.
1
Advertisement
Table of Contents
