3Com 2928 User Guide - Page 43

1 IRF IRF Overview An Intelligent Resilient Framework (IRF) stack is a set of network devices. Administrators can group multiple network devices into a stack and manage them as a whole. Therefore, stack management can help reduce customer investments and simplify network management. Introduction to Stack A stack is a management domain that comprises several network devices connected to one another through stack ports. In a stack, there is a master device and several slave devices. An administrator can manage all the devices in a stack through the master device. Figure 1-1 shows a network diagram for stack management. Figure 1-1 Network diagram for stack management z Master device: In a stack, the master device acts as the configuration interface in stack management. Management and monitoring of all the devices in the stack are performed through the master device. z Slave devices: Managed devices in a stack. z Stack port: Ports between stack devices. Establishing a Stack An administrator can establish a stack as follows: z Configure a private IP address pool for a stack and create the stack on the network device which is to be configured as the master device. z Configure ports between the stack devices as stack ports. z The master device automatically adds the slave devices into the stack, and allocates a private IP address and a member ID for each slave device. 1-1