H3C Technologies H3C S10500 Series Switches - Manual (Page 10)

• Standalone mode—The switch cannot form an IRF fabric with other switches.
• IRF mode—The switch can connect with other switches to form an IRF fabric.
You can change the operating mode of a switch at the command line interface (CLI).
IRF member switch roles
IRF uses two member switch roles: master and slave.
When switches form an IRF fabric, they elect a master to manage the IRF fabric, and all other switches
back up the master. When the master switch fails, the other switches automatically elect a new master
from among them to avoid service interruption. For more information about master election, see “ Master
election .”
Active MPU of a member switch
Each switch has one active MPU for device supervision.
After a switch joins an IRF fabric, its active MPU has the following responsibilities:
• Manages the local switch, for example, synchronizing configuration between the active MPU and
the standby MPU, processing protocol packets, and creating and maintaining route entries.
• Handles IRF related events, such as role election and topology collection.
Standby MPUs of a member switch
A switch can optionally have a standby MPU as the backup of its active MPU.
Active MPU of an IRF fabric
The active MPU of an IRF fabric is the active MPU of the master switch and manages the entire IRF fabric.
Standby MPUs of an IRF fabric
A standby MPU of an IRF fabric is a backup for the active MPU of the IRF fabric. An MPU of a member
switch is a standby MPU of the IRF fabric unless it is the active MPU of the IRF fabric.
IRF port
An IRF port is a logical interface for the internal connection between IRF member switches. Each IRF
member switch has two IRF ports: IRF-port 1 and IRF-port 2. An IRF port is activated when you bind a
physical port to it.
NOTE:
In standalone mode, the IRF ports are named IRF-port 1 and IRF-port 2. In IRF mode, the IRF ports are
named IRF-port
n/1 and IRF-port n/2, where n is the member ID of the switch. In this manual, IRF-port 1
and IRF-port 2 are used.
Physical IRF port
Physical IRF ports are physical ports bound to an IRF port. You can configure a 10 GE optical port as a
physical IRF port.
By default, a 10 GE optical port functions as a common service port and forwards data traffic. When
bound to an IRF port, it acts as an IRF physical port and forwards packets among member switches.
Packets that can be forwarded include IRF-related negotiation packets, and data packets that need to be
forwarded cross-switches.
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