No routing via IRF?

[parnassus]

Update: worth mentioning also, if not already done before, this HP Support Communication: Customer Advisory n°c04706976 "Intelligent Resilient Framework (IRF) Ring Topology for Two Devices in IRF Fabric".

[StandaCh]

Hi Søren and Parnassus,

thanks so much for your replies and explanations. I have to postpone new switches deployment because of other high priority tasks. I reset both switches and setup daisy chain topology today. As you kindly explained, ring topology do not have any benefit for this setup. So my IRF port configuration is:

irf-port 1/1
port group interface Ten-GigabitEthernet1/0/23 mode enhanced
port group interface Ten-GigabitEthernet1/0/24 mode enhanced

irf-port 2/2
port group interface Ten-GigabitEthernet2/0/23 mode enhanced
port group interface Ten-GigabitEthernet2/0/24 mode enhanced

I did some performance testing to check that up to 20Gbits can flow on IRF. I also check routing between VLANs on IRF stack. Everything works nicely.

Kind regards

Standa

[spgsitsupport]

How incredibly idiotic that high end units like 7900 do NOT support 2 member IFR fabric. What is the usser supposed to do with 2 units then?

Seb

[sdide]

Hi Seb, 

The 7900 does support a 2 member fabric! (All IRF-enabled switches do)  We're just discussing which way to make it is best to make it - while troubleshooting a routing issue.

Regards

[parnassus]

---

spgsitsupport wrote: How incredibly idiotic that high end units like 7900 do NOT support 2 member IFR fabric. What is the usser supposed to do with 2 units then?

Seb

---

First: Sorry but - IMHO - that sentence is totally Off Topic here...and then, second: where did you read that HPE high end Comware based Switch units can't form an IRF Stack simply with just two members? an IRF Stack can be formed with 2 members only...so that sentence, other than OT, is also totally false.

[spgsitsupport]

In YOUR OWN linked Customer Advisory n°c04706976

http://h20564.www2.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-c04706976&sp4ts.oid=5400932

7900 Is IRF Ring Topology Supported With Only Two Units? = NO

[sdide]

Hi, 

Keyword here would be "ring". 

You cannot according to the linked advisory, form a "2 unit RING IRF topology". 

You can however form a 2 unit daisy chain IRF topology. 

Since 1 IRF link can contain several physical links, daisychain is  all good and redundant.  

Regards. 

[parnassus]

Words matter.

[spgsitsupport]

They do indeed, pity word "daisy" does not appear on that page even once...

[parnassus]

Probably because the IRF topological method - normally expected - to be used when only two IRF members are available is (or should be) de facto only the Daisy Chain one...so again, when an IRF Stack is formed using only two members, the exception (indeed - IMHO - the one discussed on that Advisory) is exactly and only one the IRF "Ring" topology...that Advisory shed some light about the fact that (a sort of) IRF "Ring" topology (I use the " marks because we discussed above the differences between that "Ring" with 2 members and a real Ring with 3 members) is also supported (on some Switch series models only) with only two IRF members...and that Advisory did so without recalling what is the advised/normal way to properly create a IRF Stack with two IRF members.