Troubleshooting a Stack

Use this section to diagnose and troubleshoot problems with your stacked switches.

The show stacking, show stacking configuration, show stacking-support, and show stacking stack-ports commands can help you identify switches and stack ports that are improperly configured, not properly cabled, or powered down.

The commands can help you spot common problems like the following.

Incorrect ExtremeXOSSoftware Version

If a node appears in the stack as expected but does not appear to be operating as configured, use the show slot {slot {detail} | detail } command to see if there is a license mismatch or if the node is running an incorrect ExtremeXOS software version. For more information, see Managing Licenses on a Stack.

Stacking Not Enabled

If the show stacking command displays the status as Disabled for any node in the stack, use the enable stacking {node-address node-address} command, with node-address as the disabled node address, to enable stacking on that node. You can issue the command from the master node, and you can reboot the disabled node from the master node to activate the slot number configuration.

Choice of Master Node

If the switch with the highest priority was not elected master, it might be because the stack nodes were powered up at different times. Reboot all nodes in the stack simultaneously.

The following topics contain information for troubleshooting problems related to the choice of the master node:

Choice of Backup and Standby Nodes

About five minutes after a master node takes control of the stack, you might see one of the following messages:

Warning: The Backup stack node is not as powerful or as capable 
as the Master stack node. This configuration is not recommended
for successful use of the failover feature.
Notice: There are Standby stack nodes which are more powerful and more capable
than the Master and/or Backup stack nodes. This configuration is not recommended
for optimal stack performance. We recommend that you reconfigure the stacking
master-capability and/or priority parameters to allow the higher performing and
more capable nodes to become Master and/or Backup stack nodes.

In each case, to optimize your use of the failover feature, follow the guidelines in Configuring the Primary, Backup, and Standby Roles.

Loss of Saved Files

Note that saved files (backup configurations, script, etc.) are lost on a node that becomes a non-master when implementing stacking. Disabling or deleting the stacking configuration does not restore the files.

Refer to the following topics for help with troubleshooting other problems in your stack.