ProCurve Stack Management 
Configuring Stack Management 
Table 8-3. Stacking Configuration Guide 
Join Method
1 
Commander 
(IP Addressing Required) 
Candidate 
(IP Addressing Optional) 
Auto Grab  Auto Join  Passwords 
Automatically add Candidate to Stack   
(Causes the first 15 eligible, discovered 
switches in the subnet to automatically join 
a stack.) 
Yes 
Yes 
(default)  No (default)
* 
Manually add Candidate to Stack 
(Prevent automatic joining of switches you 
don’t want in the stack) 
No (default)  Yes (default) Optional
* 
Yes  No 
Optional
* 
Yes 
Yes 
(default) or No  Configured 
Prevent a switch from being a Candidate 
N/A  Disabled 
Optional 
*
The Commander’s Manager and Operator passwords propagate to the candidate when it joins the stack. 
The easiest way to automatically create a stack is to: 
1.   Configure a switch as a Commander. 
2.   Configure IP addressing and a stack name on the Commander. 
3.   Set the Commander’s 
Auto Grab parameter to Yes. 
4.   Connect Candidate switches (in their factory default configuration) to 
the network. 
This approach automatically creates a stack of up to 16 switches (including 
the Commander). However this replaces manual control with an automatic 
process that may bring switches into the stack that you did not intend to 
include. With the Commander’s Auto Grab parameter set to Yes, any switch 
conforming to all four of the following factors automatically becomes a stack 
Member: 
■  Default stacking configuration (Stack State set to Candidate, and Auto 
Join set to Yes) 
■  Same subnet (broadcast domain) and default VLAN as the 
Commander (If VLANs are used in the stack environment, see 
“Stacking Operation with a Tagged VLAN” on page 8-45.) 
■  No Manager password 
■  14 or fewer stack members at the moment 
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