Stacking; Stack Features - NETGEAR GS728TS Admin Manual

GS728TS, GS728TPS, GS752TS, and GS752TPS Gigabit Smart Switches

Stacking

A stackable switch is a switch that is fully functional operating as a stand-alone unit but can
also be set-up to operate together with up to five other switches. This group of switches
shows the characteristics of a single switch while having the port capacity of the sum of the
combined switches.
From the Stacking link under the System tab, you can access the following pages:
• Stack Configuration
• Stack Port Configuration
• Stack Port Diagnostics
• Stack Firmware Synchronization
One of the switches in the stack controls the operation of the stack. This switch is called the
stack master. The remaining switches in the stack are stack members. The stack members
use stacking technology to behave and work together as a unified system. Layer 2 and
higher 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 the following:
• System-level (global) features that apply to all stack members
• Interface-level features for all interfaces on any stack member
A switch stack is identified in the network by its network IP address. The network IP address
is assigned according to the MAC address of the stack master. Every stack member is
uniquely identified by its own stack member number, which is from 1–6. The stack master can
be any number within that range.

Stack Features

Stacking on the GS728TS, GS728TPS, GS752TS, and GS752TPS switches supports the
following:
• Up to six switches per stack, which can be any combination of GS728TS, GS728TPS,
GS752TS, or GS752TPS switches.
• Single IP address management through a web browser or the SCC.
• Master-slave configuration.
• The master retains configuration for entire stack.
• Automatic detection of new members, with synchronization of firmware (upgrade or
downgrade as needed).
• Configuration updates across the stack through a single operation.
• Automatic master fail-over. Fully resilient stack with chain and ring topology.
• Hot swapping (insertion and removal) of stack members.
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