Cisco Systems 3750E Switch Stack Membership

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Catalyst 3750-E and 3560-E Switch Software Configuration Guide
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Chapter5 Managing Switch Stacks
Understanding Switch Stacks
To manage switch stacks, you should understand:
•These concepts on how switch stacks are formed:
– Switch Stack Membership, page 5-3
– Stack Master Election and Re-Election, page 5-5
•These concepts on how switch stacks and stack members are configured:
– Switch Stack Bridge ID and Router MAC Address, page 5-6
– Stack Member Numbers, page 5-6
– Stack Member Priority Values, page 5-7
– Switch Stack Offline Configuration, page 5-8
– Hardware Compatibility and SDM Mismatch Mode in Switch Stacks, page 5-10
– Switch Stack Software Compatibility Recommendations, page 5-10
– Stack Protocol Version Compatibility, page 5-11
– Major Version Number Incompatibility Among Switches, page 5-11
– Minor Version Number Incompatibility Among Switches, page 5-11
– Incompatible Software and Stack Member Imag e Upgrades, page 5-15
– Switch Stack Configuration Files, page 5-15
– Additional Considerations for System-Wide Configuration on Switch Stacks, page 5-16
– Switch Stack Management Connectivity, page 5-16
– Switch Stack Configuration Scenarios, page 5-18
Note A switch stack is different from a switch cluster. A switch cluster is a set of switches connected through
their LAN ports, such as the 10/100/1000 ports. For more inform ation about how switch stacks differ
from switch clusters, see the “Planning and Creating Clusters” chapter in the Getting Started with Cisco
Network Assistant on Cisco.com.
Switch Stack Membership
A switch stack has up to nine stack members connected through their StackWise Plus ports. A switch
stack always has one stack master.
A standalone switch is a switch stack with one stack member that also operates as the stack master. You
can connect one standalone switch to another (Figure 5-1 on page 5-4) to create a switch stack
containing two stack members, with one of them as the stack master. You can connect standalone
switches to an existing switch stack (Figure5-2 on page 5-5) to increase the stack membership.
If you replace a stack member with an identical model, the new switch functions with exactly the same
configuration as the replaced switch, assuming that the new switch is using the same member number as
the replaced switch. For information about the benefits of provisioning a switch stack, see the “Switch
Stack Offline Configuration” section on page 5-8. For information about replacing a failed switch, see
the “Troubleshooting” chapter in the hardware installation guide.
The operation of the switch stack continues uninterrupted du ring membership changes unless you
remove the stack master or you add powered-on standalone switches or switch stacks.