H3C - What is “management-vlan” on Comware switches?

What I have found talks about “clustering”.   In comparison, HPN E-Series switches uses “management-vlan” just to isolate ssh/telnet connections to the vlan designated.  Cluster management on the A-Series switches isnt really used much.  It is mostly used to save pulic ip addresses.  

From one of the manuals on www.h3c.com

Cluster Management Definition

A cluster is a group of network devices. Cluster management is to implement management of large numbers of distributed network devices. Cluster management offers the following advantages:

·         Saving public IP address resource

·         Simplifying configuration and management tasks. By configuring a public IP address on one device, you can configure and manage a group of devices without the trouble of logging in to each device separately.

·         Providing topology discovery and display function, which is useful for network monitoring and debugging

·         Allowing simultaneous software upgrading and parameter configuration on multiple devices, free of topology and distance limitations

Management clusters are prone to human errors as it is easier to change something on the wrong port.   Much better a private address per device.  IRF is the way to go.  It offers:

·         dual uplinks (one from each switch) with LACP

·         redundancy

·         no failover time

·         fully used aggregates.