Managing Switch Stacks; Understanding Switch Stacks - Cisco WS-C3750-48PS-S Software Configuration Manual

Managing Switch Stacks

This chapter provides the concepts and procedures to manage Catalyst 3750 switch stacks.
For complete syntax and usage information for the commands used in this chapter, refer to the command
Note
reference for this release.
This chapter consists of these sections:
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•
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For other switch stack-related information, such as cabling the switches through their StackWise ports
and using the LEDs to display switch stack status, refer to the hardware installation guide.

Understanding Switch Stacks

A switch stack is a set of up to nine Catalyst 3750 switches connected through their StackWise 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 stack members. The stack members use the Cisco StackWise
technology to behave and 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 master is the single point of stack-wide management. From the stack master, you configure:
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•
A switch stack is identified in the network by its bridge ID and, if the switch stack 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 uniquely identified by its own stack member
number.
All stack members are eligible stack masters. If the stack master becomes unavailable, the remaining
stack members participate in electing a new stack master from among themselves. A set of factors
determine which switch is elected the stack master. One of the factors is the stack member priority value.
The switch with the highest priority value becomes the stack master.
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Understanding Switch Stacks, page 5-1
Assigning Stack Member Information, page 5-17
Accessing the CLI of a Specific Stack Member, page 5-19
Displaying Switch Stack Information, page 5-20
System-level (global) features that apply to all stack members
Interface-level features for each stack member
C H A P T E R
Catalyst 3750 Switch Software Configuration Guide
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5-1