H3C Technologies H3C S3600 Series Switches - Manual (Page 809)

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The management device collects the topology information periodically. You can also launch an
operation of topology information collection by executing related commands. The process of topology
information collection is as follows.
z The management device sends NTDP topology collection requests periodically through its
NTDP-enabled ports.
z Upon receiving an NTDP topology collection request, the device returns a NTDP topology
collection response to the management device and forwards the request to its neighbor devices
through its NTDP-enable ports. The topology collection response packet contains the information
about the local device and the NDP information about all the neighbor devices.
z The neighbor devices perform the same operation until the NTDP topology collection request is
propagated to all the devices within the specified hops.
When an NTDP topology collection request is propagated in the network, it is received and forwarded
by large numbers of network devices, which may cause network congestion and the management
device busy processing of the NTDP topology collection responses. To avoid such cases, the following
methods can be used to control the NTDP topology collection request advertisement speed.
z Configuring the devices not to forward the NTDP topology collection request immediately after they
receive an NTDP topology collection request. That is, configure the devices to wait for a period
before they forward the NTDP topology collection request.
z Configuring each NTDP-enabled port on a device to forward an NTDP topology collection request
after a specific period since the previous port on the device forwards the NTDP topology collection
request.
z To implement NTDP, you need to enable NTDP both globally and on specific ports on the
management device, and configure NTDP parameters.
z On member/candidate devices, you only need to enable NTDP globally and on specific ports.
z Member and candidate devices adopt the NTDP settings of the management device.
Introduction to Cluster
A cluster must have one and only one management device. Note the following when creating a cluster:
z You need to designate a management device for the cluster. The management device of a cluster
is the portal of the cluster. That is, any operations from outside the network intended for the
member devices of the cluster, such as accessing, configuring, managing, and monitoring, can
only be implemented through the management device.
z The management device of the cluster recognizes and controls all the member devices in the
cluster, no matter where they are located in the network and how they are connected.
z The management device collects topology information about all member/candidate devices to
provide useful information for you to establish the cluster.
z By collecting NDP/NTDP information, the management device learns network topology, so as to
manage and monitor network devices.
z Before performing any cluster-related configuration task, you need to enable the cluster function
first.