Table 12 Physical IRF port requirements

Switch chassis

Candidate physical

Requirements

IRF ports

 

 

 

 

• You must order interface cards separately. For

 

 

long-distance connections, use XFP or SFP+

 

 

transceiver modules and fibers. For short-distance

 

 

connections, use CX4 or SFP+ cables. For more

 

 

information, see “Interface cards (only for the

5120 EI switches

Ports on the expansion

5120 EI switches)“ and “SFP/SFP+/XFP

transceiver modules and SFP+/CX4 cables (only

(excluding the 5120-24G

interface cards on the

for the 5120 EI switches).”

EI and the 5120-48G EI)

rear panel

• Ports assigned to the same IRF port must be on the

 

 

 

 

same interface card.

 

 

• All 5120 EI switches in a ring topology and the

 

 

non-edge switches in a daisy chain topology must

 

 

have at least one two-port interface card or two

 

 

one-port interface cards.

 

 

 

 

 

HP recommends that you use Gigabit SFP ports and

 

 

HP A3600 Switch SFP Stacking Kit cables for IRF

5120 SI switches

All network ports

connection.

 

 

For more information, see “SFP transceiver modules

 

 

and SFP Stacking Kit (only for the 5120 SI switches).”

 

 

 

Planning the cabling scheme

Planning the cabling scheme for a 5120 EI IRF fabric

If 2-port interface cards are used and the IRF links are not aggregate, follow these guidelines on connecting two neighboring 5120 EI switches:

•You can connect the interface card in slot 1 (MOD 1) on a member switch to the MOD 1 or MOD 2 card on its neighboring switch.

•Connect the left port on one interface card to the right port on the other interface card, as shown in Figure 81.

Figure 81 Use 2-port interface cards to set up single-link IRF connection

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