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what is the advantages of stacking?

vinothlb1
Level 1
Level 1

what is the advantages of stacking? How to stack 3 switches together? how to configure?

5 Replies 5

Richard Burts
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame

vinoth

The main advantage of stacking is that you get to take several individual switches and configure them and treat them as a single entity instead of as several independent individuals..

Also, depending on the particular switches and their stacking technology, you may have a switch to switch connection at much higher throughput than the capacity of an access port (or trunk port) connection between switches.

HTH

Rick

HTH

Rick

e.claveau
Level 1
Level 1

You also have the advantage of using a cross stack LACP etherchannel for redundancy instead of relying on spanning tree when using a stack as a distribution layer switch or as a server access layer switch.

Joseph W. Doherty
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame

The "stacking" the other posters have noted usually uses a special dedicated stack port. Cisco's 3750 and 3750-E series Stackwise/Stackwise+ is an example, see http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps5718/ps5023/prod_presentation09186a0080161372.pdf for more information.

An earlier version of Cisco "stacking" technology was GigaStack, see http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/modules/ps872/products_data_sheet09186a00800a1789.html or http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/interfaces_modules/transceiver_modules/installation/guide/mamoint.html.

However, I've also noticed "stacking" is sometimes used for a set of switches, often in a rack, that "daisy chain" or "cascade" port connections from one to the next. In this configuration, each switch is configured independently (unless perhaps switch "clustering" is supported). Such a configuration uses less ports than a "star" configuration.

1. Single management IP address for all switches.

2. A single configuration file for entire switches.

3. STP, CDP, VTP would run on one switch, not multiple switches.

4. Single MAC address table.

 

Great buddy . . .

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