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Catalyst 3550 Multilayer Switch Software Configuration Guide
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Chapter 5 Clustering Switches
Creating a Switch Cluster
Adding Member Switches
As explained in the
“Automatic Discovery of Cluster Candidates and Members” section on page 5-4
, the
command switch automatically discovers candidate switches. When you add new cluster-capable
switches to the network, the command switch discovers and adds them to a list of candidate switches.
To display an updated cluster candidates list from the Add to Cluster window (
Figure 5-10
), either
relaunch CMS and redisplay this window, or follow these steps:
1.
Close the Add to Cluster window.
2.
Select View > Refresh.
3.
Select Cluster > Add to Cluster to redisplay the Add to Cluster window.
From CMS, there are two ways to add switches to a cluster:
•
Select Cluster > Add to Cluster, select a candidate switch from the list, click Add, and click OK.
To add more than one candidate switch, press Ctrl, and make your choices, or press Shift, and
choose the first and last switch in a range.
•
Display the Topology view, right-click a candidate-switch icon, and select Add to Cluster
(
Figure 5-11
). In the Topology view, candidate switches are cyan, and member switches are green.
To add more than one candidate switch, press Ctrl, and left-click the candidates that you want to
add.
Instead of using CMS to add members to the cluster, you can use the cluster setup privileged EXEC
command or cluster member global configuration command from the command switch.
You can select one or more switches as long as the total number of switches in the cluster does not
exceed 16 (this includes the command switch). When a cluster has 16 members, the Add to Cluster
option is not available for that cluster. In this case, you must remove a member switch before adding a
new one.
If a password has been configured on a candidate switch, you are prompted to enter it before you can
add it to the cluster. If the candidate switch does not have a password, any entry is ignored.
If multiple candidates switches have the same password, you can select them as a group, and add them
at the same time. If you incorrectly enter the password for those candidates, none of them is added to the
cluster. If a candidate switch in the group has a password different from the group, only that specific
candidate switch is not added to the cluster.
When a candidate switch joins a cluster, it inherits the command-switch password. For more information
about setting passwords, see the
“Passwords” section on page 5-16
.