H3C Technologies H3C S5820X Series Switches - Manual (Page 4)

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Feature Description
IRF Overview
Introduction
Intelligent Resilient Framework (IRF) is a software virtualization technology developed by H3C. Its core
idea is to interconnect multiple devices through physical IRF ports and perform necessary
configurations, and then these devices are virtualized into a distributed device. This virtualization
technology realizes the cooperation, unified management, and non-stop maintenance of multiple
devices.
The devices that form an IRF are called IRF members. Each of them plays either of the following two
roles:
z Master: Manages the entire IRF.
z Slave: All member devices operating as the backups of the master are called slaves. When the
master fails, the system automatically elects a new master from among the slaves.
Master and slaves are elected through the role election mechanism. An IRF has only one master at one
time. Other members are the slaves.
Application and Advantages
Typically, you can deploy an IRF at the distribution layer; and you can also apply it at the access layer.
An IRF is a single logical device to the users and devices of the upper layer and lower layer, as shown
in Figure 1-1 .
Figure 1-1 IRF networking
IP network
IRF virtual device
IP network
IRF link
Equal to
Master Slave
IRF features the following advantages:
z Streamlined management