Virtual Connect and HP A-Series switches (A5820) IRF Integration Guide

Introduction

Intelligent Resilient Framework (IRF) is an innovative HP switch platform virtualization technology that

allows dramatic simplification of the design and operations of data center and campus Ethernet

networks. IRF overcomes the limitations of traditional STP (Spanning Tree Protocol) based and legacy

competitive designs by delivering new levels of network performance and resiliency.

Virtual Connect is an industry standard-based implementation of server-edge virtualization. It cleanly

separates server enclosure administration from LAN and SAN administration and allows you to add,

move, or replace servers without impacting production LAN and SAN availability

This document provides detailed configuration and test information for the following items: (Please

note, although A5820 was chosen as the platform of testing but IRF design concept should remain the

same for other A-series switches)

IRF and Virtual Connect setup configurations

 A5820/5800 logical switch and IRF link setup from two standalone switches (on page

11)

 A5820/5800 BFD MAD (Multi-Active Detection) link setup (on page 14)

 LLDP neighbor discovering (on page 15)

 LACP port bundling (long timeout and short timeout) (on page 17)

Failover tests

 A5820 port-channel (Bridge Aggregation Interface connecting to Virtual Connect) failure

(on page 23)

 A5820 switch failure (on page 26)

 A5820 IRF link failure to test MAD detection (on page 28)

 Virtual Connect primary module failure (on page 31)

Images of IMC (Intelligent Management Center) and Insight Control for

vCenter network monitoring

 IC (Insight Control) for VMware vCenter plug-in screen capture of network monitoring of

Virtual Connect, vSwitch, and Access switch (A5820) (on page 33)

 HP Networking IMC screen capture of A5820 and Virtual Connect monitoring (on page

36)