Stack or not to Stack

[Bergin]

Hi,

I have a ton of 2524's and they are using stacking kits to connect them but they are not managed like a stack - each switch is assigned its own IP address.

Was interested in hearing pro's & con's to managing them as a stack (i.e. one IP for a stack vs. each switch has an IP).

Thanks,

Rob

[Travis Truax]

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there is much of any benefit to stacking other than conserving your IPs OR only having to remember one IP to manage your switches, which ever way you want to look at it. Also, the commander unit will give you one place to alter the maintenance password.

We don't use the stacking functionality on our switches because they only allowed you to stack a certain number of switches at the time - and so it defeated the "only having to remeber one IP" benefit. They may have increased the number of units you can stack since then.

Travis-

[Bergin]

I think the maximum number of 2524's in a stack is pretty large like 8 or 16 - anyone know the answer before I go and look it up.

So far I see the pro - using a single IP address.

There is also the single connection for management.

We have an issue in that our switches have VLAN1 and VLAN10, we used VLAN10 like a default VLAN but unfortunately our switches are set to use VLAN1 as the default so we can't get the stacking modules to work with VLAN10 only with VLAN1.

Thanks,

Rob

[Travis Truax]

The maximum number of stack members is 15.
And I don't completely understand what you're saying about the VLANs.
The switch uses the configured primary VLAN for management - by default the primary is set to the DEFAULT_VLAN, but you can change it if you need to.

Travis-

[Sergej Gurenko]

Hi,

There is to separate things: stacking kit for 2525 and virtual stacking for management.
The first ( http://www.hp.com/rnd/accessories/J4116A/accessory.htm ) is tho stripped down gigabit transceivers, which are only accepting special 60 cm stacking cable. Connecting two 2524 do not automatically convert that to the stack. At the time 2524 was released stacking kit was little bit cheaper than full featured 100/1000-T adapter.
The second thing is logical (or virtual) stacking. If this feature enabled two or more devises can respond to one IP address but have completely different configuration files.

[Bergin]

Hi,

Thanks for the info - we have 2524's with the Gigabit Stacking Module (its how we are stacking now) but we don't manage them as a stack (with 1 IP address).

I was looking to see how many folks manage it like a stack or as individual switches - I have not seen that much info to say if its a best practice or just an option.

Thanks,

Rob

[Bergin]

Travis,

We had an issue - lemme describe it.

Switch 1 - has a Gigabit Stacker in Port #26

Switch 2 - has a Gigabit Stacker in Port #25

The only way we could get the two switches to join up in a stack was if we put those two ports in the Default VLAN - which is the default/primary Default VLAN or 1.

We wanted to try and put them in VLAN10 which is what we use as a default VLAN (and I think the solution is to just make the "default VLAN" 10 from 1.

We basically never set the "default VLAN" to be the VLAN we use as a default instead we use VLAN10 like a default VLAN while 1 is set to be the primary VLAN

Does that make sense?

Thanks,

Rob

[Sergej Gurenko]

Bergin,

Configure all interswitch links as a Q-trunk and put all desired vilans (VALN1 and VLAN10).

Do not forget that STP is involved on stacking kits connections as on the other ports.