SOLVED
Hi, the most simple thing you can do is inter-link them point-to-point creating a chain, the end result will be a chain of four Switches (they will remain four standalone entities, each one with its own IP Address set for management on the Default VLAN 1).
If you need to manage VLANs are get rid of VLAN 1 (Default) or just work with links aggregations (to Servers or between switches) to enhance resiliency and throughput on involved interfaces then you need to plan your network better and more configurations are required.
I'm not an HPE Employee
Yes, you understood it correctly.
You can do quick&dirty (simply):
- Switch 1 (48) to Switch 2 (47), Switch 1 will have port 47 unused.
- Switch 2 (48) to Switch 3 (47)
- Switch 3 (48) to Switch 4 (47), Switch 4 will have port 48 unused.
Or plan your cabling to be ready for future LAGs implementation reserving just few more adjacent ports for future usage:
- Switch 1 (45, 46 and 47 all spare + 48) to Switch 2 (45 spare + 46)
- Switch 2 (47 spare + 48) to Switch 3 (45 spare + 46)
- Switch 3 (47 spare + 48) to Switch 4 (47, 48 and 45 all spare + 46)
Indeed If were you I will designate latest four available ports to the inter-Switch link role (let's say port 47 and 48 on a 48 ports model or port 23 and 24 on a 24 ports model...if you go with copper RJ45 ports) I will also leave a pair of ports before those ones (let me say port 45 and 46 or 21 and 22, respectively) as free spares just in case you want to later implement LAG between each switch (Link AGgregation with 2 ports in one single logical interface using IEEE802.3ad=LACP=Dynamic as link aggregation control protocol). If you're going to implement LAGs then port 47 on a Switch would be connected to port 45 on the next Switch and port 48 on a Switch on port 46 on the next too...and so on.
If you will deploy with LAGs this would be a nice pattern:
- Switch 1 (LAG1: 47+48) to Switch 2 (LAG2: 45+46) here the first Switch 1 will have 45 and 46 unused (spare)
- Switch 2 (LAG1: 47+48) to Switch 3 (LAG2: 45+46)
- Switch 3 (LAG1 :47+48) to Switch 4 (LAG2: 45+46) here the last Switch 4 will have 47 and 48 unused (spare)
So, as you can see, LAG 1 connects to LAG 2 between each adjacent switches pair, LAG 2 on Switch 1 and LAG 1 on Switch 4 are not strictly necessary since you will not close the loop between them (but you can configure those LAGs just in case to be ready for a fault on Switch 2 or 3...so you can easily connect then 4 to 1 and re-form the chain <- this can be also achieved automatically through a planning of STP).
In ANY case a scenario deployed that way - with or without LAGs - you will have VLAN 1 (Default) untagged stretched along all four Switches of the chain.
Cabling/Patch Cords should be quite normal certified Cat. 5E (Maximum 90 meters long end-to-end) because that Switch Series IIRC doesn't support neither 10GBase-T nor SFP+ Transceivers which would have required you to use Cat.6 or Cat.6A (better) copper cabling or OM3 quality multi-mode fiber optic cabling for short range fiber optics deployment were maximum permitted length is generally below 300 meters.
I'm not an HPE Employee