Planning A Switch Cluster; Automatic Discovery Of Cluster Candidates And Members; Discovery Through Cdp Hops - Cisco Catalyst 2928 Software Configuration Manual

Planning a Switch Cluster

Planning a Switch Cluster
Anticipating conflicts and compatibility issues is a high priority when you manage several switches
through a cluster. This section describes these guidelines, requirements, and caveats that you should
understand before you create the cluster:
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Refer to the release notes for the list of Catalyst switches eligible for switch clustering, including which
ones can be cluster command switches and which ones can only be cluster member switches, and for the
required software versions and browser and Java plug-in configurations.

Automatic Discovery of Cluster Candidates and Members

The cluster command switch uses Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) to discover cluster member switches,
candidate switches, neighboring switch clusters, and edge devices across multiple VLANs and in star or
cascaded topologies.
Do not disable CDP on the cluster command switch, on cluster members, or on any cluster-capable
Note
switches that you might want a cluster command switch to discover. For more information about CDP,
see
Following these connectivity guidelines ensures automatic discovery of the switch cluster, cluster
candidates, connected switch clusters, and neighboring edge devices:
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Discovery Through CDP Hops

By using CDP, a cluster command switch can discover switches up to seven CDP hops away (the default
is three hops) from the edge of the cluster. The edge of the cluster is where the last cluster member
switches are connected to the cluster and to candidate switches. For example, cluster member switches 9
and 10 in
Catalyst 2928 Switch Software Configuration Guide
5-4
Automatic Discovery of Cluster Candidates and Members, page 5-4
HSRP and Standby Cluster Command Switches, page 5-9
IP Addresses, page 5-12
Hostnames, page 5-12
Passwords, page 5-12
SNMP Community Strings, page 5-13
TACACS+ and RADIUS, page 5-13
LRE Profiles, page 5-13
Chapter 23, "Configuring CDP."
Discovery Through CDP Hops, page 5-4
Discovery Through Non-CDP-Capable and Noncluster-Capable Devices, page 5-5
Discovery Through Different VLANs, page 5-6
Discovery Through Different Management VLANs, page 5-7
Discovery of Newly Installed Switches, page 5-8
Figure 5-1 are at the edge of the cluster.
Chapter 5 Clustering Switches
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