Appendix B: About Switch Stacking; Standalone Mode; Stack Mode; Stack Building Quick Start - Cisco Gigabit Smart Switch with Resilient Clustering Technology and PoE SLM224G4PS User Manual

Appendix B
Appendix B:
About Switch Stacking
A switch may operate in one of two modes: Stack or
Standalone. You can select either mode during software
boot or using the web-based utility's Setup > Summary
screen, with the new mode taking effect after the unit is
reset. The factory default is Stack mode.

Standalone Mode

A switch operating in Standalone mode runs as an
independent, single unit. All ports of a standalone switch
operate as normal Ethernet links. A Standalone switch
does not participate in a Stack even if physically connected
to a Stack.

Stack Mode

A switch operating in Stack mode is not an independent
unit, but a member of an organized group of switches
known as a Stack. A Stack consists of one Master control
switch, a Master Backup switch, and up to four Stack
Member SLM224G4PS switches, or up to two Stack
Member SLM248G4PS switches.
As a special case, a unit in Stack mode not connected
•
to any other units may operate as a "stack–of-one".
NOTE:
When a unit is in Stack mode, two of
its ports are reserved for use with stacking
links, and cannot be used for regular network
connections.
Two ports of each unit in Stack mode (ports G1 and G2)
are reserved for stacking links, and cannot be used for
regular network connections.

Stack Building Quick Start

Stacking allows you to build a switch with many more
ports than would be available in a single unit. The stack is
managed by one of the units called the Master and all the
other units serve as ports only.
When building a stack there are two distinct cases:
Building a stack from scratch
•
Adding units to a running (operational) stack to make
•
it bigger

Normal (Self-Ordering) Stack

The easiest way to build a stack is to have the switches'
automatically determine their order in the stack.
24/48-Port 10/100 + 4-Port Gigabit Smart Switch with Resilient Clustering Technology and PoE
About Switch Stacking
Building a New Stack
To build a new self-ordering stack, use a group of switches,
each of which is set to the factory defaults.
All that is necessary to do is to connect the units physically
(through the stacking ports, using standard Ethernet
cables) and turn the units on. After a short interval the stack
will become operational with one of the units selected as
the Master of the stack. The unit selected as Master will
be indicated by the Stack Master LED on its front panel lit
amber. If a serial console connection is desired, the serial
cable should be connected to the console port of the unit
serving as stack Master.
If the units to be used in building the new stack were used
before then it is highly recommended to reset them back
to factory default (by holding the reset button for at least
10 seconds) and proceeding as described above.
Adding Units to a Running Stack
Restore the factory defaults to each of the units to be
added to the stack. Then connect the units physically to
the stack and turn the units on. After a short while the new
units will become stack members.

Manually Ordered Stack

The system administrator can manually decide which unit
will be the Master. To do that the system administrator
has to assign a unique Unit ID from 1 to 6 (1 to 4 for
SLM248G4PS-only stacks) to each stack member.
NOTE:
It is highly recommended that if any
unit is assigned its Unit ID manually, then all
the units be assigned their Unit IDs manually.
It is NOT recommended to have a mixed case
with some Unit IDs assigned manually, and
others automatically allocated at runtime by
the stack Master (even though such a mixed
stack may well function flawlessly).
Building a New Stack
Reset all of the units to the factory defaults and build the
stack as described above in "Normal (Self-Ordering) Stack".
Then, when the stack is operational, assign each unit with
its desired number, making sure no duplicates exist, and
reset the stack.
Adding Units to a Running Stack
Restore the factory defaults to each of the units to be
added to the stack. Then, connect the units physically to
the stack and turn the units on. After a short while they
will become stack members, but will have auto-assigned
Unit IDs. Assign each such unit its desired Unit ID (using
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