Onboarding Conductor and Members for BPS stacking

The following is a high-level process flow for configuring BPS switch stacks:

  1. Add all the switches that are intended to act as a conductor, standby, and members in the BPS switch stack to the device inventory and assign a license. All the switch members must be set to factory default and powered off. All the switches in the AOS-S stack must be licensed in HPE Aruba Networking Central.
  2. Insert the stacking module to the switch you intend to add as a conductor.
  3. Power on the conductor switch. The switch comes up online in Central as one-member BPS switch stack. A one-member BPS switch stack is a single BPS switch with stacking enabled.
  4. Move the one-member switch stack from the Unassigned Devices group to a UI group. The stacking information is displayed in the Stacks configuration page with switch member added as the conductor.
  5. Add other members to the stack when the status of the conductor switch is active in the Members table. For more information, see Adding a Stack Member.
  6. After adding members, connect the stacking modules and stacking cables between the switches to form the desired topology.
  7. Power on the switches one at a time. The second switch that is powered on will be elected as standby. The subsequent switches that get powered on will be designated as the members of the stack.

If the stack members are connected and powered on before adding to a stack, then the members might not join the stack in HPE Aruba Networking Central. In such scenarios, the status of the stack members is displayed as Inactive in the UI. Also, the stack cannot be managed using UI groups in HPE Aruba Networking Central.

For more information on topology and configuration of switch stacks, see the AOS-Switch Installation and Getting Started Guide and AOS-Switch Advanced Traffic Management Guide for the respective switch series.