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Configuring communication between the management switch
and the member switches within a cluster
In a cluster, the management switch and member switches communicate by sending handshake packets
to maintain connection between them. You can configure interval of sending handshake packets and the
holdtime of a switch on the management switch. This configuration applies to all member switches within
the cluster. For a member switch in Connect state:
•
If the management switch does not receive handshake packets from a member switch within the
holdtime, it changes the state of the member switch to Disconnect. When the communication is
recovered, the member switch needs to be re-added to the cluster (this process is automatically
performed).
•
If the management switch receives handshake packets from the member switch within the holdtime,
the state of the member switch remains Active and the holdtime is restarted.
Follow these steps to configure communication between the management switch and the member
switches within a cluster:
To do…
Use the command…
Remarks
Enter system view
system-view
—
Enter cluster view
cluster
—
Configure the interval to send
handshake packets
timer
interval
Optional
10 seconds by default
Configure the holdtime of a switch
holdtime
hold-time
Optional
60 seconds by default
Configuring cluster management protocol packets
By default, the destination MAC address of cluster management protocol packets (including NDP, NTDP
and HABP packets) is a multicast MAC address 0180-C200-000A, which IEEE reserved for later use.
Since some switches cannot forward the multicast packets with the destination MAC address of
0180-C200-000A, so cluster management packets cannot traverse these switches. For a cluster to work
normally in this case, you can modify the destination MAC address of a cluster management protocol
packet without changing the current networking.
The management switch periodically sends MAC address negotiation broadcast packets to advertise the
destination MAC address of the cluster management protocol packets.
Follow these steps to configure the destination MAC address of the cluster management protocol packets:
To do…
Use the command…
Remarks
Enter system view
system-view
—
Enter cluster view
cluster
—