stacking 4200G not recognized

[wertheim.maxime]

Hello all,

i am trying to stack 2 4200G switches.

when i tried it before, i only was able to cluster them.

a 3com sales person, through my official vendor, advised me to buy 2 XFP cards and a cable to improve performances and to be able to stack.

i bought the cards, and now i tried again, but no stack option either on the web interface and while i am on telnet.

i believed it was because of ald firmware, or even because they were clusterised, so i updated the switchs, and disbanded the clusters.

but still on telnet:

display version


3Com Corporation


Switch 4200G 24-Port Software Version 3Com OS V3.02.00s168


Copyright (c) 2004-2007 3Com Corporation and its licensors, All rights reserved.


Switch 4200G 24-Port uptime is 0 week, 0 day, 0 hour, 51 minutes

Switch 4200G 24-Port with 1 Processor


64M   bytes DRAM


16M   bytes Flash Memory


Config Register points to FLASH

Hardware Version is REV.B


CPLD Version is 002


Bootrom Version is 2.00


24 GE ( 4 COMBO ) Hardware Version is REV.B


1  XGE Hardware Version is REV.NULL

stacking ip-pool


                ^


 % Unrecognized command found at '^' position.

all 3com docs shows that those switches are stackable and give the command to start the stacking process, even on the website those are shown as stackable switches, but the commande does not exist, or at least on mine.

i have spoke to someone else at 3com france, and got an answer that those switches are not stackable but only clusterisable.

i am starting to be lost and need some help.

are those stackable, and if yes how i can get the stack commands !

thank you in advance.

[Fred_Mancen_1]

Hi, download the configuration guide and take a look at the page 478:

http://support.3com.com/documents/switches/4200G/Switch_4200G_CRG_V3.02.03_6W101.pdf

Actually the 4200G does support a "clustered-way stack", and it does not shows the behavior we would expect in a real stack, as the 5500G-EI, 4500 and 5500-EI does. These switches are grouped in a "stack", but only responds as a cluster, where you have a master and slaves switches. You can manage these stack from the master, but always changing the login to a slave switch.





In the 4500G the situation is the same (but, a few time ago was released a new firmware version with the IRF Lite feature, similar as that runs in the 4800G - IRF Stack).





You can optimize the settings, as the example below:





interface tengigabitethernet 1/1/1


port link-type trunk


port trunk permit vlan 1 23 59 218


port trunk pvid vlan 218





The feature does not support the Distributed Link Aggregation (DLA), but there is a feature called LACP MAD (I'm not kidding...MAD = multi-active detection) that may help you in distributed implementations, but I never used it before and I don't really know how it works.


When you need to change some settings in the stack you have to issue the command from the master that leaves  you to manage the slave member you choose.





Every change in the settings need to be performed in each switch, one per time, the master does not synchronize the changes with the slaves. As Lars Ulrich would say: Sad but true.





HTH

















 

This message was edited by Fred_Mancen on 3-25-10 @ 11:59 AM

[wertheim.maxime]

thank you fred, but i do not understand, why some people have the stack otpion on their 4200g.

when you look over the kbs and docs, you find many topics, aswer  or how to do it with 4200g.

(try "how to stack 4200g", you will see)

this is why i am getting lost

[Fred_Mancen_1]

Buddy, in my opinion most of all people who implement this feature never has worked with a 5500-EI, 5500G-EI XRN or even a 4500 stack. There is some misunderstandings regarding the real stack feature.

To me, there is only three basic ways to interconnect switches: simple connections using uplinks (UTP or fibre, whatever), cluster mode and stack mode. In stack mode the whole stack acts as a single entity, with ONE IP address, ONE console, sharing all the L2/L3 informations and the configuration files. It's like a chassis with many blades.  The stack feature in the 4200G is actually a cluster with some enhancements, just this, no further benefits.

You are not lost, you are facing the truth. If you follow the configuration guide of the 4200G you will be able to form a "stack" with the 4200G. But remember that ALL the members need to have exactly the same system files (.app, .web and bootrom). Update your switches to the latest version available before implement the feature.

HTH

[bilevans]

 search on "Unable to create a stack of 4200G switches" in the Knowledgebase.

There is a specific transceiver required - the Manual is incorrect.

You need to upgrade to the latest firmware before it will recognize the Stack commands.

I did most of what it said, and i still could not get it to stack. 

[Fred_Mancen_1]

Even using the CX4 Local Connection modules and CX4 cables the 4200G switches acts like a cluster when "stacked". It's really better than a simple cluster, but it does not work as expected when we hear the stack word.

Regards