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Step Description
1. Plan IRF fabric setup
Plan the installation site and IRF fabric setup parameters:
• Planning IRF fabric size and the installation site
• Identifying the master switch and planning IRF member IDs
• Planning IRF topology and connections
• Identifying physical IRF ports on the member switches
• Planning the cabling scheme
2. Install IRF member
switches
See “Installing the switch.”
3. Connect the grounding
cable and power cords
See “Grounding the switch” and “Connecting the power cord.”
4. Power on the switches
N/A
5. Install interface cards
This step is required only for the 5120 EI switches.
See “Installing/removing an interface car
d (only for the 5120 EI switches).”
6. Configure basic IRF
settings
See “Configuring basic IRF settings.”
7. Connect the physical IRF
ports
See “Connecting the physical IRF ports.”
All switches except the master
switch automatically reboot, and the IRF fabric
is established.
Planning IRF fabric setup
Planning IRF fabric size and the installation site
Choose switch models and identify the number of required IRF member switches, depending on the user
density and upstream bandwidth requirements. The switching capacity of an IRF fabric equals the total
switching capacities of all member switches.
NOTE:
As your business grows, you can plu
g
a switch into an IRF fabric to increase the switchin
g
capacity withou
t
any topology change or replacement.
Identifying the master switch and planning IRF member IDs
Determine which switch you want to use as the master for managing all member switches in the IRF fabric.
An IRF fabric has only one master switch. You configure and manage all member switches in the IRF
fabric at the command line interface of the master switch.
NOTE:
IRF member switches will automatically elect a master. You can affect the election result by assigning a
high member priority to the intended master switch. For more information about master election, see the
IRF configuration guide for your switch.
Prepare an IRF member ID assignment scheme. An IRF fabric uses member IDs to uniquely identify and
manage its members, and you must assign each IRF member switch a unique member ID.