I’m happy to say I’m stacking more switches now, and this time they are Brocade units and not HP (H3C). Luckily Brocade switches are easier to stack and also offer much better performance. Here we go!

Step 1) RTFM. Read the manual. No really, read it. They have this: http://www.brocade.com/downloads/documents/html_product_manuals/FI_ICX6610_07400_IG/wwhelp/wwhimpl/js/html/wwhelp.htm

But really what you need is the configuration PDF: http://www.brocade.com/downloads/documents/product_manuals/B_FastIron/FastIron_07400a_ConfigGuide.pdf You want to look at page 242 (in actuality it’s page 300). Connect the cables as in the diagrams. I’m using all 4 ports on each switch in a ring topology.

Step 2) Since I’m using fresh switches out of the box and I have nothing else connected to them I can use the secure setup that Brocade provides.

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ICX6610-48 Switch#config terminal
 ICX6610-48 Switch(config)#stack enable
 ICX6610-48 Switch(config)#exit
 ICX6610-48 Switch#stack secure-setup

Accept all the settings as long as they are in line with what you are trying to accomplish.

Step 3) The second switch will reboot and join the stack. I wouldn’t bet on the configs being saved on the second switch, so if there was anything important on the other switch make sure you had the config backed up somewhere else.

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ICX6610-48 Switch#show stack
 alone: standalone, D: dynamic config, S: static config
 ID   Type         Role    Mac Address    Pri State   Comment
 1  S ICX6610-48   active  748e.f895.1234 128 local   Ready                      
 2  D ICX6610-48   standby 748e.f895.1235   0 remote  Ready                      

  active       standby
   +---+        +---+
  =2/1| 1 |2/6==2/1| 2 |2/6=
  |   +---+        +---+   |
  |                        |
  |------------------------|

 Standby u2 - No hitless failover. Reason: hitless-failover not configured
 Current stack management MAC is 748e.f895.1235
 Note: no "stack mac" config. My MAC will change after failover.

Step 4) Have a beer because it was much easier than configuring HP’s IRF.