H3C Technologies H3C S3600 Series Switches - Manual (Page 793)

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The system does not require a consistency in the fabric port groups between different switches. That is,
the left fabric port in the first group of a switch can be connected to the right fabric port in the second
group of the peer switch.
FTM
As the basis of the IRF function, the Fabric Topology Management (FTM) program manages and
maintains the entire topology of a fabric.
With fabric ports configured, the FTM program releases information of the device through the fabric
ports. The device information includes Unit ID, CPU MAC, device type ID, fabric port information, and all
fabric configuration information. The device information is released in the discovery packet (DISC).
After receiving the packet, the peer device will analyze the packet. A device can form a fabric with the
peer or join a fabric only when the following conditions are met.
z The number of the existing devices in the fabric does not reach the maximum number of devices
allowed by the fabric (up to eight devices can form a fabric).
z The fabric name of the device and the existing devices in the fabric are the same.
z The software version of the device is the same as that of the existing devices in the fabric.
z The device passes the security authentication if security authentication is enabled on the device or
in the fabric, that is, the same authentication mode and password are configured on the device and
the existing devices in the fabric.
In case IRF automatic fabric is enabled on both a switch in the fabric and a switch to be added to the
fabric (referred to as candidate switch hereinafter), even if the software version of the candidate switch
is inconsistent with that used on the device in the fabric, you can still add a device to the fabric by
automatic downloading and loading of the software.
IRF fabric detection
Forming a fabric requires a high consistency of connection modes between the devices and device
information. Without all the requirements for forming a fabric being met, a fabric cannot be formed.
The FTM program detects the necessary conditions for forming a fabric one by one and displays the
detection results. You can use the display ftm information command to view the detection information
for the fabric, checking the running status of the fabric or analyzing the problems. Table 1-1 lists the
status and solution of the problems.