Recommendations for Placing Switches for Stacked Operation

For best results in a SummitStack configuration, follow these recommendations for physically situating your equipment:

• Use the shortest possible stacking cables to connect the switches in the stack. This reduces the likelihood that the stacking cables might accidentally be damaged or disconnected. Stacking cables are available in lengths ranging from 0.3 meters to 100 meters.
• When possible, place all switches for the stack in the same rack or in adjacent racks. This facilitates using shorter stacking cables.
• The stack master is the switch, or node, through which you will perform the initial stack configuration, using the console port. For simplicity and ease of connecting the stacking cables, plan to designate the top switch in a vertical physical stack as the stack master. If switches are installed in several adjacent racks, place the stack master at one end of the row.
• Physically locate the intended master and backup nodes adjacent to each other, and plan to connect these nodes to each other directly so that ExtremeXOS application synchronization traffic is localized to a single stack link.
• On the master node, connect the Ethernet management port to your management network.
• To provide management access to the stack in case of a failure in the master switch, connect all switches that will participate in redundancy to your management network using the Ethernet management port on each switch.
• Use stacking cables to interconnect the stack nodes into a ring topology (see Ring Topology: Recommended for Stacking). Include only the nodes that you expect to be active in the stack.
• When you use the SummitStack 128G cable, SummitStack 64G cable, or SummitStack 128G/64G cable, we strongly recommend the use of cable management hardware to support the weight of the cables and to provide strain relief at the connectors.

Follow the recommendations in Recommendations for Configuring Stacks to configure the software for your stack.

The recommended procedures for installing and interconnecting a stack are found in Setting up the Physical Stack.