C H A P T E R
5-1
Cisco Catalyst Blade Switch 3120 for HP Software Configuration Guide
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5
Managing Switch Stacks
This chapter provides the concepts and procedures to manage switch stacks.
Note
For complete syntax and usage information for the commands used in this chapter, see the command
reference for this release.
This chapter consists of these sections:
•
Understanding Switch Stacks, page 5-1
•
Configuring the Switch Stack, page 5-21
•
Accessing the CLI of a Specific Stack Member, page 5-25
•
Displaying Switch Stack Information, page 5-25
For other switch stack-related information, such as cabling the switches through their StackWise Plus
ports and using the LEDs to display switch stack status, see the hardware installation guide.
Caution
The Cisco Catalyst Blade Switch 3120 for HP does not support switch stacks with different types of
blade switches as members. Combining the Cisco Catalyst Blade Switch 3120 for HP with other types
of blade switches in a switch stack might cause the switch to work improperly or to fail.
Understanding Switch Stacks
A switch stack is a set of up to nine stacking-capable switches connected through their StackWise Plus
ports.
One of the switches controls the operation of the stack and is called the stack master. The stack master
and the other switches in the stack are all stack members. The stack members use the Cisco StackWise
Plus technology to work together as a unified system. Layer 2 and Layer 3 protocols present the entire
switch stack as a single entity to the network. The stack members can be in different enclosures.
The stack master is the single point of stack-wide management. From the stack master, you configure:
•
System-level (global) features that apply to all stack members
•
Interface-level features for each stack member
A switch stack is identified in the network by its bridge ID and, if it is operating as a Layer 3 device, its
router MAC address. The bridge ID and router MAC address are determined by the MAC address of the
stack master. Every stack member is identified by its own stack member number.