H3C Technologies H3C S7500E Series Switches - Manual (Page 20)

1-13
z An IRF port that is bound with multiple physical IRF ports is an aggregation IRF port, which
increases the bandwidth and reliability on the IRF port.
z You can bind multiple physical IRF ports to one IRF port by executing the port group interface
command for multiple times. In addition, the S7500E series allows you to bind multiple physical IRF
ports on different LPUs to one IRF port.
z Before binding a physical IRF port to an IRF port or canceling such a binding, you must manually
disable the physical IRF port (in other words, execute the shutdown command on the port). After
finishing your operation, manually enable the physical IRF port (in other words, execute the undo
shutdown command on the port).
z The mode keyword in the port group command specifies the working mode of a physical IRF port.
By default, the working mode of a physical IRF port is normal. An SC interface card does not
support configuration of the working mode of physical IRF ports as enhanced.
z Physical IRF ports that connect two member devices of an IRF virtual device must be configured to
work in the same mode.
z To use the virtual private LAN service (VPLS) function in an IRF virtual device, configure the
working mode of physical IRF ports as enhanced.
Specifying the Preservation Time of IRF Bridge MAC Address
A device uses the bridge MAC address when it communicates with the outside as a network bridge. A
bridge device on the network has its unique bridge MAC address. Some Layer 2 protocols (like LACP)
use bridge MAC addresses to identify different devices. During the forwarding of Layer 2 packets, if the
destination MAC address of a packet is the bridge MAC address of a device, it means that the packet is
sent to this device.
In an IRF virtual device, the bridge MAC address of a member device is called member bridge MAC
address. The IRF virtual device communicates with the outside as a single device; therefore, it also has
a bridge MAC address, which is called the bridge MAC address of the IRF virtual device. Typically, an
IRF virtual device uses the bridge MAC address of the master as its bridge MAC address.
You are recommended to configure the preservation time of bridge MAC address of the IRF virtual
device properly, otherwise, network problems will occur:
z If a master leaves an IRF virtual device to join another IRF virtual device or to operate
independently and the IRF virtual device is configured to preserve the bridge MAC address
permanently, bridge MAC address collision occurs and thus causes network communication
problem.
z If the master leaves the IRF virtual device because of reboot or link failure and the IRF virtual
device is configured to change the bridge MAC address of the IRF virtual device as soon as the
master leaves, the unnecessary switch of bridge MAC address occurs and thus causes flow
interruption.
Therefore, configure the preservation time of bridge MAC address of the IRF virtual device according to
your network status: