Need help with "HPE FlexFabric 5900AF 48G 4XG" stacking

[Kasraeian]

Dear All,

I need help with "HPE FlexFabric 5900AF 48G 4XG" stacking.

I'd be grateful if anyone could help me with the question if this switch supports any kind of stacking like other brands such as "StackWise" on Cisco^© as we are going to buy two of these switches and for high availability I want to stack them.

If this switch support some features like this, do I need to buy a specific cable, module or license for it?

Thanks in advance for your kind help

[parnassus]

Short answer: Yes, through HPE IRF (Intelligent Resiliency Framework).

"HP Intelligent Resilient Framework (IRF) technology virtualizes multiple physical devices at the same layer into one virtual fabric to provide data center class availability and scalability. IRF virtualization technology offers processing power, interaction, unified management, and uninterrupted maintenance of multiple devices."

Reference: HP 5920 & 5900 Switch Series IRF Configuration Guide for Comware 7.10 Release 2416 (which is, actually, valid also for the latest Release 2422P01-B Firmware).

More on the HPE FlexNetwork 5900 Switch Series page (Read QuickSpecs, Product Documentation - particularly Datasheet - and access the Support page for Software, Manuals and Tips).

There is a lot of documental and video references about HP IRF...also an HP official IRF Overview video here.

Best (it's not mandatory) is to have at least 3 Switches in a IRF Fabric using a Ring Topology, eventually with an intermediate Switch that acts as MAD (Multi-Active Detection) to provide a Multi-Active handling procedure which includes Detection, Collision Handling and Failure Recovery of the IRF Fabric domain.

No licenses are required, IRF is a feature that can be configured on the Comware operating system based Switches.

No particular/specific Hardware Stacking Modules or Stacking Cables are necessary: IRF depoyment happens through (by using) the definition of the IRF Ports entities which members can be physical interfaces like Ten Gigabit Ethernet ports, SFP+ (10G) ports or QSFP+ ports, so Ethernet (Copper/Fiber Optics/DAC) cabling will suffice.

All details (restrictions and guidelines) on the guide cited above.