380 | High Availability
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Component Redundancy
Dell Force10 systems eliminates single points of failure by providing dedicated or load-balanced
redundancy for each component.
RPM Redundancy
The current version of FTOS supports 1+1 hitless Route Processor Module (RPM) redundancy. The
primary RPM performs all routing, switching, and control operations while the standby RPM monitors the
primary RPM. In the event that the primary RPM fails, the standby RPM can assume control of the system
without requiring a chassis reboot.
This section contains the following sub-sections:
• Boot the chassis with a single RPM on page 380
• Boot the chassis with dual RPMs on page 381
• Automatic and manual RPM failover on page 382
• Support for RPM redundancy by FTOS version on page 384
• RPM synchronization on page 385
Boot the chassis with a single RPM
You can boot the chassis with one RPM and later add a second RPM, which automatically becomes the
standby RPM. FTOS displays Message 1 when the standby RPM is online.
On the C-Series, since the RPM also contains the switch fabric, even though the second RPM comes online
as the standby, the switch fabric is active and participates in routing. You can achieve line rate on all line
cards with a single RPM except for the 8-port 10G line card which requires both RPMs to achieve line rate.
Message 1 Standby RPM is Online
%RPM-2-MSG:CP0 %POLLMGR-2-ALT_RPM_STATE: Alternate RPM is present
%IRC-6-IRC_COMMUP: Link to peer RPM is up
%RAM-6-RAM_TASK: RPM1 is in Standby State.