Stacking Ports And Trunks - Brocade Communications Systems ICX 6430 Hardware Installation Manual

Stacking ports and trunks

There are four SFP ports (ICX 6430) or four SFP+ ports (ICX 6450) on the front panels that can be used as uplink (data) ports or as
stacking ports. The figure below shows the ports in slot 2; the top row consists of ports 1 and 3, and the bottom row consists of ports 2
and 4.
FIGURE 26 Stacking ports
1. Console port
2. Slot 2 (SFP and SFP + uplink or stacking ports)
3. Out-of-band management port
4. Slot 1 (10/100/1000 Mbps ports)
Ports 1 and 3 are default stacking ports. Default stacking ports have the capability to accept special stacking packets during a CLI-
initiated command sequence of the Secure Setup utility. If ports 1 and 3 are not used as stacking ports, you can use them as data ports.
Configuration is not required to use them as data ports.
All four ports in slot 2 can be used as stacking ports.
The stacking ports can be grouped into two trunks. Ports 1 and 2 can form a trunk; ports 3 and 4 can form another trunk. By default, ICX
6430 and ICX 6450 devices are not configured for trunking.
On the ICX 6450, ports 1 and 3 are 10 Gbps ports. Without a license at bootup, ICX 6450 ports 2 and 4 come up in 10 Gbps port
speed in an error disabled state. To enable ports 2 and 4 to 10 Gbps port speed, purchase the ICX6450-2X10G-LIC-POD license. For
more information about enabling ports 2 and 4 to 10 Gbps port speed, refer to the FastIron Ethernet Switch Administration Guide.
Trunking requirements
• You can connect one or both ports in a trunk. Connecting both ports in a trunk increases stacking bandwidth and provides
resiliency.
• If you connect both ports in a trunk, both ports must connect to both ports of one trunk on another device.
• When configuring a trunk, the ports in the same column are always trunked (port 1 to port 2, port 3 to port 4). One or both of
the two sets of stacking ports can be trunked (or untrunked).
• For ICX 6430 devices, all stacking ports must be at 1-Gbps port speed to enable trunking. For ICX 6450 devices, all stacking
ports must be configured to 10-Gbps port speed to enable trunking.
Brocade ICX 6430 and ICX 6450 Stackable Switches Hardware Installation Guide
Part Number: 53-1003617-03
Connecting devices in a traditional stack
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