22.6.1.4 Auto Stacking

[davidj_cogliane]

Looking for other people experiences and reporting my test results below.

First tests who that auto stacking is pretty cool and works well.



I stacked a single X450-G2 and let it run. I then connected a second X450-G2 with stack cables and powered it on. The stacked switched added the second switch to the stack and upgraded the firmware to match what was installed on the master.



Next I unplugged the stack cables and connected the master to a different X450-G2 to simulate replacing a failed slot. The master added the new switch as slot 2 and upgraded its firmware just as it did with the first switch.



Unfortunatly adding a trial license to the master switch causes the second switch to come up with a role of “none” I had hoped it would make the second switch a standby node that could easily have its license upgraded…

Do we know the expected behavior in case of a license mismatch?

[Dave_Hammers]

Thanks for the feedback.

If a switch is added and is the backup switch, the licenses must match the master. If the licenses do not match, then the backup switch is not allowed to join the stack.
During the EXOS 22.6 release training, our GTAC team suggested that if a backup switch has mismatched licenses, just let it join the stack as standby.
Base license mismatch and feature license mismatch cause this behavior.

I can update the feature to switch to standby and post it to github, which means downloading the updated feature to your switch, (not the full EXOS, just the auto stacking part. Internally it's called ztpstack)

or just tweak for the next EXOS release

or leave it as it is as an indication that the backup licenses need to be updated

[davidj_cogliane]

Great,

Thanks for the update.

[Dave_Hammers]

FYI, I've added the functionality for the next release that detects if a backup has mismatched licenses with the master, and changes the backup to standby.
Thanks again for the feedback.

Example log message:
09/23/2018 20:19:49.59 Slot-1: ztpstack: slot 2 : License mismatch with master. Disabling master capability

[davidj_cogliane]

As I continue reading the release notes, I wonder if "checking during easy stacking setup" could behave the same way and simply create the stack without a backup?

"ExtremeXOS 22.6 includes enhanced checking when executing easy stacking setup (configure stacking easy-setup). When using easy stacking setup, ExtremeXOS now checks: 1 ExtremeXOS selected partition on all nodes; if mismatch, warning message appears. 2 ExtremeXOS image version on selected partition on all nodes; if mismatch, warning message appears. 3 Eˆective license level on master and backup nodes; if mismatch, set stacking license-level on the node of higher level with the lower level, and then continue with easy-setup. 4 Feature pack licenses on master and backup nodes; if mismatch, warning message appears, and the command is aborted. "