Cisco Catalyst 2950 Software Manual page 99

Chapter 5 Clustering Switches
Discovery through CDP Hops
By using CDP, a command switch can discover switches up to seven CDP hops away (the default is
three hops) from the edge of the cluster. The edge of the cluster is where the last member switches are
connected to the cluster (for example, the command switch and member switches 8, 9, and 10 in
Figure 5-1
You can set the number of hops the command switch searches for candidate and member switches by
selecting Cluster > Hop Count. When new candidate switches are added to the network, the command
switch discovers them and adds them to the list of candidate switches.
Figure 5-1
management VLAN 16. The CDP hop count is three. The command switch discovers switches 11, 12,
13, and 14 because they are within 3 hops from the edge of the cluster. It does not discover switch 15
because it is 4 hops from the edge of the cluster.
Figure 5-1
Edge of
cluster
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are at the edge of the cluster).
shows a switch cluster with candidate switches. The command switch has ports assigned to
Discovery through CDP Hops
Command switch
Management
VLAN 16
Member
switch 8
Member
switch 9
Switch 11
candidate
switch
Management
VLAN 16
Member
switch 10
Switch 12
Candidate
Switch 13
switches
Switch 14
Switch 15
Catalyst 2950 Desktop Switch Software Configuration Guide
Planning a Switch Cluster
5-5