7.2.1 Stack configurations

(1) Stacking Two Member Switches

The following figure shows an example stack configuration with two member switches.

Figure 7-2: Example of stacking with two member switches

In a stacked configuration, the master switch controls other member switches and operates virtually as a single unit.

We recommend that you configure link aggregation during stack configuration for each member switch that is part of the stack. This setting allows communication to continue even if a single member switch fails.

If the stack link fails and communication between the member switches is not possible, the stack is split and both become the master switches. As a result, communication may not be possible. To avoid this situation, we recommend that you configure at least two stack links for redundancy.

(2) Stacking with a Single Member Switch

A single member switch can also form a stack.

Even if you are configuring a stack with two member switches, you can first configure a single member switch stack, and then connect the stack ports of each member switch to migrate to two member switch stacks.

In addition, if you use a single member switch stack from the beginning, you can increase the number of ports that can be used by adding devices without stopping communication during operation.