Guinness Book of World Records recently recognized Brendon for stacking six M&Ms on top of each other. At Extreme Networks, we believe stacking switches should be easier than stacking M&Ms. Introducing ExtremeCloud^TM IQ’s new Instant Stack. It’s as easy as 1-2-3.

Stacking is a proven technology in the industry commonly used for increasing port density in a wiring closet. It simplifies the management of all the switches within the stack using a single IP address. You can stack up to eight switches. Stacking also enables redundancy for infrastructure devices such as wireless APs by connecting them to different stack members via link aggregation. Understanding the technology around stacking and the various steps required to be executed in appropriate order makes it a tedious exercise. What is worse is that you need to execute these steps switch by switch within the stack.

Sam Sexton, Solutions Architect at Cerdant says “Using the new mode was incredibly simple and worked exactly as expected. This process allows for you quickly stack your switches and jump right into configuration”

Here’s how Extreme has innovated to automate stacking with the click of a button!

1. Onboard the switches into ExtremeCloud IQ via MobileApp

2. Press the Mode Button: Unbox the switches, connect the stacking/power/uplink cables, and push Mode button of the first switch until STACK LED is lit. Hold down the button for 5 seconds and release to watch the stack form automatically!

Voila, ExtremeCloud^TM IQ auto detects the stack

Figure 1: Under Status, click on the Stack icon to view all the members of the stack.

3. From Assign Policy, select “Create template based on currently selected device” and ExtremeCloud IQ will automatically create a stack template.

Stack Template settings can be modified (VLANs etc.) for each unit of the stack as shown below.

You can monitor Stack health (such as CPU Utilization & Memory Utilization).  Scroll down the screen to see detailed information on the ports within the stack.

ExtremeCloud IQ Instant Stack allows IT administrators to deploy Extreme Switch stack (of up to 8 switches) in 3 easy steps.  There’s no need to login to each switch and use CLI to enable stacking.  With a push of a button, Stack is automatically formed & managed from ExtremeCloud IQ.