HPE JH323A

34
Step Description
3. Connect ground wires
and power cords
See "Grounding the switch" a
nd "Connecting the power cord."
4. Power on the switches
N/A
5. Configure basic IRF
settings
See HPE 5130 HI Switch Series IRF Configuration Guide.
6. Connect the physical
IRF ports
Use SFP+ transceiver modules and fibers to connect SFP+ ports over a long
distance. Use SFP+ DAC cables to connect SFP+ ports over a short distance.
All switches except the master switch automatically reboot, and the IRF fabric
is established.
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.
NOTE:
For the maximum number of IRF member devices in an HPE 5130 HI IRF fabric, see the release
notes.
Identifying the master switch and planning IRF member IDs
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 configure and manage all member switches in the IRF
fabric at the CLI of the master switch. 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 HPE 5130 HI 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
You can create an IRF fabric in daisy chain topology or more reliable ring topology. In ring topology,
the failure of one IRF link does not cause the IRF fabric to split as in daisy chain topology. Instead,
the IRF fabric changes to a daisy chain topology without interrupting network services.