3 – Planning Multiple Chassis Fabrics
3.5.3
Stacking
You can connect up to six 20-port SANbox 5000 Series switches together through the 10-Gbps ports, thus preserving the user ports for devices. This is called stacking. The following 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-switch stacking configurations are recommended for best performance and redundancy. Each 10-Gbps port contributes 1 GB of bandwidth between chassis with one chassis hop between any two ports. Figure 3-1shows a two-switch stack of model 5000 switches using two 3-inch XPAK switch stacking cables. 32 1/2/4-Gbps ports are available for devices.
Figure 3-1. Two-Switch Stack
Figure 3-2shows a three-switch stack of SANbox 5000 Series switches using two 3-inch and one 9-inch XPAK switch stacking cables. 48 1/2/4-Gbps ports are available for devices.
Figure 3-2. Three-Switch Stack
