3850 Stack Question. I'm new to stacks

[meinanut1]

So, I have two 3850's I want to put in a closet.  Do I stack them or just leave them stand alones...  My plan was to connect each to the core switch using fiber and users on each switch.

When I conenct the switches using the stackwise cable, I have an active and standby...  Is there a way to make the standby a member?  is the standby in true "standby" mode?  Can I use the ports on the standby switch?

SO many questions   Apppriecte any help..

Thanks

[Collin Clark · Accepted solution]

You should stack them, you paid a lot for that feature There is a master switch and the rest of the switches are members. There is no standby that's "waiting" like in firewalls. All switches and switchports are active so you can use them all!

[Joseph W. Doherty · Accepted solution]

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Posting

BTW, when you stack your pair, ideally, you still want an uplink from each switch.  Depending on L2/L3 configuration, on both your stack and core device, you should be able to use the bandwidth from both links to/from the stack too.  Also, if possible, try not to have the two links terminate on same line card on your core device, to avoid that also being a single point of failure.

[meinanut1]

Awesome.  Thank you very much.