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IRF Stacking With HP Networking/ H3C Switches A5120-48G

My Setup

  • 3x HP A5120-48G EI Switch with 2 Interface Slots (Note that these are from the H3C product lineup)
  • 3x HP CX4 interface cards, plugged into MOD1 slot in each switch

CX4 cards are connected in a ring topology (do not connect until you preconfigure):

Switch1 connector 1->Switch 2 connector 2 Switch2 connector 1->Switch 3 connector 2 Switch3 connector 1->Switch 1 connector 2

Phase 1: Preconfigure

Perform on all switches:

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system-viewsysname SOMETHING
irf domain 1
# on switch 2 only:
irf member 1 renumber 2
#on switch 3 only:
irf member 1 renumber 3

On all switches, reboot

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reboot
y

y

Verify that member numbers stayed on all the switches:

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disp irf topology

Phase 2: Connect and Configure

(I apologize for the formatting, blogger ate all of my nice formatting)

Turn off all switches Connect TenGigE interfaces in ring topology Power on switch 1 (master) and wait til done booting Power on switch 2 and wait til done booting Power on switch 3 and wait til done booting

Do for switch 1:

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system-view
#
interface Ten-GigabitEthernet1/1/1
 shutdown
#
interface Ten-GigabitEthernet1/1/2
 shutdown
#
quit
#
irf-port 1/1
 port group interface Ten-GigabitEthernet1/1/1 mode normal
#
irf-port 1/2
 port group interface Ten-GigabitEthernet1/1/2 mode normal
#
#
interface Ten-GigabitEthernet1/1/1 undo shutdown
#
interface Ten-GigabitEthernet1/1/2 undo shutdown
#
quit
return
save
y

y
system-view
irf-port-configuration active
return
save
y

y

Do for switch 2

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system-view
#
interface Ten-GigabitEthernet2/1/1 shutdown
#
interface Ten-GigabitEthernet2/1/2 shutdown
#
quit
#
irf-port 2/1 port group interface Ten-GigabitEthernet2/1/1 mode normal
#
irf-port 2/2 port group interface Ten-GigabitEthernet2/1/2 mode normal
#
#
interface Ten-GigabitEthernet2/1/1 undo shutdown
#
interface Ten-GigabitEthernet2/1/2 undo shutdown
#
quit
return
save
y

y
system-view
irf-port-configuration active
return
save
y

y

Do for switch 3:

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system-view
#
interface Ten-GigabitEthernet3/1/1 shutdown
#
interface Ten-GigabitEthernet3/1/2 shutdown
#
quit
#
irf-port 3/1 port group interface Ten-GigabitEthernet3/1/1 mode normal
#
irf-port 3/2 port group interface Ten-GigabitEthernet3/1/2 mode normal
#
#
interface Ten-GigabitEthernet3/1/1 undo shutdown
#
interface Ten-GigabitEthernet3/1/2 undo shutdown
#
quit
return
save
y

y
system-view
irf-port-configuration active
return
save
y

y

Phase 3: Test

After this you will see many system messages and also see

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System is busy with warm backup, please wait ...

This is the master switch rebooting the slave switches as they join the IRF. You can check the setup like so

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<HP>disp irf top
                           Topology Info -------------------------------------------------------------------------               IRF-Port1                IRF-Port2 Switch    Link       neighbor      Link       neighbor    Belong To 2         UP         3             UP         1           b8af-6123-6123 3         UP         1             UP         2           b8af-6123-6123 1         UP         2             UP         3           b8af-6123-6123

<HP>disp irf ?
configuration IRF configuration that will be valid after reboot
topology       Topology information
  |              Matching output
<cr>
<HP>disp irf configuration
MemberID NewID    IRF-Port1                     IRF-Port2
1       1        Ten-GigabitEthernet1/1/1      Ten-GigabitEthernet1/1/2
2       2        Ten-GigabitEthernet2/1/1      Ten-GigabitEthernet2/1/2
3       3        Ten-GigabitEthernet3/1/1      Ten-GigabitEthernet3/1/2
<HP>

You should also configure each switch’s Master Priority. A higher number means it will have more chances of being the master. This is done with:

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irf member 1 priority 32
 irf member 2 priority 31
 irf member 3 priority 30

Confirm that the switch is a master with:

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disp irf
Switch  Role   Priority  CPU-Mac         Description
 *+1 Master  32        b8af- 6123-6123   -----   2   Slave   31        b8af- 6123-6123   -----   3   Slave   30        b8af- 6123-6123   -----
--------------------------------------------------
 * indicates the device is the master.
 + indicates the device through which the user logs in.
 The Bridge MAC of the IRF is: b8af-6123-6123
Auto upgrade                : yes
Mac persistent              : 6 min Domain ID                   : 1

After you have suffered through all this you can go ahead and configure your switches or, more correctly, single large switch (as the switches will be now act as one).

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sysname mylanswstack1
interface Vlan-interface1
 ip address 10.0.0.2 255.255.255.0

Save all your configurations. Shut off the switches and restart them, and make sure they come up in the proper IRF Master/Slave roles.

See Also

Page 10 of: http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c02648772/c02648772.pdf

and

http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c02641935/c02641935.pdf

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