64Step Description• Identifying physical IRF ports on the member switches• Planning the cabling scheme2. Install IRF member switches See "Installing the switch in a 19-inch rack" or "Mounting theswitch on a workbench."3. Connect ground wires and power cords See "Grounding the switch" and "Connecting the power cord."4. Power on the switches N/A5. Configure basic IRF settings For more information about IRF, see H3C S5820X & S5800Switch Series IRF Configuration Guide.6. Connect the physical IRF portsConnect 10GE physical IRF ports on switches. Use SFP+transceiver modules and fibers to connect 10-Gigabit SFP+ portsover a long distance, or use SFP+ cables to connect 10-GigabitSFP+ ports over a short distance.Use category 6 or above twisted pair cables to connect1/10Gbase-T Ethernet ports.All switches except the master switch automatically reboot, andthe IRF fabric is established.Planning IRF fabric setupPlanning IRF fabric size and the installation siteChoose S5820X switch models and identify the number of required IRF member switches, depending onthe user density and upstream bandwidth requirements. The switching capacity of an IRF fabric equalsthe total switching capacities of all member switches.Plan the installation site depending on your network solution, as follows:• Place all IRF member switches in one rack for centralized high-density access.• Distribute the IRF member switches in different racks to implement the top-of-rack (ToR) accesssolution for a data center.NOTE:An IRF fabric can have up to 10 S5820X switches. As your business grows, you can plug an S5820Xswitch into an IRF fabric to increase the switching capacity without any topology change or replacement.Identifying the master switch and planning IRF member IDsDetermine which switch you want to use as the master for managing all member switches in the IRF fabric.An IRF fabric has only one master switch. You configure and manage all member switches in the IRFfabric at the command line interface of the master switch.NOTE:IRF member switches will automatically elect a master. You can affect the election result by assigning ahigh member priority to the intended master switch. For more information about master election, seeH3CS5820X & S5800 Switch Series IRF Configuration Guide.