Building a stack

The Stack wizard joins standalone RUCKUS ICX units into a single stack over their dedicated stacking ports. It shows you exactly which cables to plug where, checks they’re connected, and then drives FastIron’s stack interactive-setup for you.

Before you start

The switch you’re connected to must be standalone — the wizard won’t run against a switch that’s already in a stack. Its model must support stacking, and your target size can’t exceed what the model and firmware allow.

1. Choose size and topology

• Units — how many switches in the stack, from 2 up to the model’s maximum (12 for most families; 8 on ICX 7150 at 10.0.10 and later).
• Topology — Ring (the default and the recommendation) or Linear.

Prefer a ring

A ring lets any single cable or unit fail without splitting the stack. In a linear topology, a failed cable or unit splits the stack into two independent halves — “split-brain” — and disrupts the network. The wizard flags linear with an on-screen warning for exactly this reason.

2. Cable the units and check

The wizard draws a live stack diagram and lists the exact cables to connect — each unit’s stacking ports to the next, plus a closing cable back to unit 1 for a ring. Cable each unit as shown (the required cable type, such as 25G SFP28, depends on the model), then press Check Cables.

ICX Setup discovers the physically connected units and marks each expected cable verified or missing. Build Stack stays disabled until every cable checks out — until then the button reads “Fix missing cables, then check again.”

There’s a short cooldown

FastIron only allows stack interactive-setup to run about every 30 seconds, so Check Again has a brief cooldown timer. Wait for it and retry.

3. Build the stack

With cables verified, press Build Stack. ICX Setup enables stacking if it isn’t already, runs the interactive setup, accepts the discovered chain, and waits for the members to join. It then confirms the expected number of units joined and saves the config with write memory.

If a member is on a different firmware version, it syncs firmware from the active controller as it joins — you’ll see a “Firmware mismatch detected” note, and the wizard waits longer while the member re-images. If fewer units join than expected, you’ll get “<actual> of <expected> switches joined the stack. Check cables on the missing units.”

After building

Re-assess the switch to see the formed stack — unit count, topology, and any remaining per-unit warnings. See Assessing a switch.

To also upgrade and adopt the stack in one pass, use Full Deploy, which builds the stack first and then upgrades every member to the target version.

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Troubleshooting · Contact support.