stacking 2524's

[KevinW_1]

I would like to know if stacking is just for management or can it also be used to connect switches as a normal trunk passing normal traffic.

I have an admin that has joined two 2524's with a gigastack and "sh int br" shows them as 1000-stk and they come up as 1000-half duplex.

I cannot set them 1000-full.

So - management or real traffic? Everything I find so far says only management

KevinW

[Matt Hobbs · Accepted solution]

When talking stacking, it usually is in reference to the management feature.

On the other hand, there is the J4116A stacking kit which you are also referring too. This is nothing special, just designed to confuse people. It's exactly like connecting two or more switches together via gigabit links.

Also in regards to how you can only see 1000-half on those ports, I've also seen this. I believe it is a comsetic bug and that the ports are actually running at full duplex. I'm guessing that you could half confirm this by checking the counters, if there are 0 collisions you could safely assume it is running full duplex.

[KevinW_1]

thank-you!

At the moment I can't get to the site as it is down but I should have checked the counters.

Is there a software release where the cosmetic bug has been fixed?

[KevinW_1]

I understatnd the possibility of a cosmetic bug but what about not being able to manually set the speed/duplex?

When I try speed-duplex 1000-full or 1000-auto, I get an arrer that that is not available on that port?

What I'm wondering is, is this type of port really meant to be used as an normal port.

If the intent is to connect 2 switches together to pass traffic, why use a stacking interface?

KevinW

[Matt Hobbs]

It is definitely meant for passing regular traffic. The transciever ports themselves are meant to only support full duplex connections. I'll see if I can test it out again myself.

Otherwise if you do end up seeing a significant amount of collisions on those ports and it truly looks like it is running in half duplex mode, you may want to open up case with HP support.

[KevinW_1]

ok, that would be great!

what about the problem with manually setting speed/duplex?

and one last issue, just how do I get one ip address to manage both switches?

thanks

KevinW