Switch Clustering

[Mark Bowyer]

I have configured switch clustering and can see all of the members and the IP address for the cluster is being advertised. From what I have heard, switch clustering is supposed to be superior to stacking. But from what I have seen it is pretty pointless unless I have configured it wrong. With stacking you can configure all stack members by connecting to the virtual IP, but with clustering it appears you have to use "rcommand" to access other members, which I can do already by using telnet.

Am I doing anything wrong or is this how it is supposed to work?

[glen.grant]

Nope sounds right . Clustering is a cluster so to speak at best .  Stackable switches are better .

[Mark Bowyer]

So what is the point in clustering your switches then? What are the benefits supposed to be? Do any of you out there actually cluster your switches?

[Mark Bowyer]

Does anybody have any practical uses for switch clustering?

[Yogesh Ramdoss]

Mark,

As I am aware, clustering was the way of creating group of switches, to manage them as a single entity. This was widely used in 2900XL/3500XL switches. These switches do not have stack ports. With 3750x platforms, I would recommend stacking them, as stack-ring provides more bandwidth and performance compared to clustering.

Please review similar discussion:

https://supportforums.cisco.com/message/510098

- Yogesh

[Mark Bowyer]

So switch clustering is not really used in this day and age? I was trying to manage them using telnet, but I am guessing there is maybe another application that is used to do this?

[Yogesh Ramdoss]

Mark,

It will be helpful if you provide platform and IOS ver info.

- Yogesh

[Leo Laohoo]

So switch clustering is not really used in this day and age?

Yes and no.  One of the "pros" for using clustering during the age of the 2900/3500 is the allocation of management IP addresses.  Instead of giving each switches an IP address, you can just use one when you have clustering enabled.  The "cons" was managing it was pure nightmare.

There's no hard rule about using clustering in modern network equipments particularly if you are using non-stackable switches.

I am guessing there is maybe another application that is used to do this?

No application uses this.  Clustering is Cisco proprietary.