Introduction; Applicability; Stacking And Management; Stacking And Performance - Dell PowerConnect PC7024 Stacking Instructions

Stacking Dell PowerConnect 7000 Series Switches

Introduction

This white paper explains the purpose and operation of the stacking feature in the Dell™
PowerConnect™ 7000 Series Gigabit Ethernet switches. The PowerConnect 7000 series is Dell's most
advanced switching product line, offering advanced switching capabilities including high-density, high-
performance stacking, and 10 Gigabit Ethernet capabilities that scale from the small business to the
Enterprise Edge. Stacking allows multiple switching units to be combined together to act as a single,
high-performance, highly resilient switching unit with a single management interface. Units can be
added to increase throughput as needed. With each stack unit supporting up to 184 Gbps in switch
capacity, the customer can have almost 2 terabits of capacity in a single stack.

Applicability

This paper applies to the PowerConnect 7000 series switches, which includes the PC7024, PC7048,
PC7024P, PC7048P, PC7024F, PC7048R, and PC7048R-RA Dell part numbers. Each PowerConnect switch
has two bays that can be customized to support a stacking or an uplink configuration. Each bay can
contain a CX-4, SFP+, or a 10GBase-T module. Stacking is supported only on CX-4 modules in either or
both bays. CX-4 modules can be configured for 16 Gbps stacking operation or 10 Gbps Ethernet
operation. CX-4 modules default to stacking mode. The maximum cable length that can be used with
CX-4 modules is 12 meters.

Stacking and Management

An important advantage of stacking is that it provides a consolidated interface for management of
multiple switches when linked together. When a stack is already deployed in the network, operators
can add units to the stack as their port requirements increase, with minimal administrative overhead
required for reconfiguration. Additional stack members can immediately utilize existing configuration
information such as routing and switching configurations, VLANs, ACLs, port profiles, and security
certificates.

Stacking and Performance

For situations where there is a need to pass traffic between switches and the aggregate bandwidth
required between PowerConnect 7000 Series switches does not exceed 64 Gbps (2 ports, 16 Gbps Tx
each), a stacking configuration offers an attractive alternative to Link Aggregation Groups
and Rx
(LAGs). Stacking configuration is generally transparent to the operator and does not require
configuration beyond cabling. In addition, failover times are generally faster in a stack configuration.
Note that other PowerConnect Series switches may have different supported bandwidths for stacking.
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