Stacking Overview; Stacking Requirements - Lenovo RackSwitch G8264 Application Manual

Stacking Overview

Stacking Requirements

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G8264 Application Guide for ENOS 8.4
A stack is a group of up to eight RackSwitch G8264 switches with Lenovo
Enterprise Network Operating System that work together as a unified system. A
stack has the following properties, regardless of the number of switches included:
 The network views the stack as a single entity.
 The stack can be accessed and managed as a whole using standard switch IP
interfaces configured with IPv4 addresses.
 The CLI for Individual Member switches is available via the Master switch serial
console, or using remote Telnet/SSH access to the Master.
Once the stacking links have been established (see the next section), the number

of ports available in a stack equals the total number of remaining ports of all the
switches that are part of the stack.
 The number of available IP interfaces, VLANs, LAGs, LAG Links, and other
switch attributes are not aggregated among the switches in a stack. The totals for
the stack as a whole are the same as for any single switch configured in
stand‐alone mode. A maximum of 4095 VLANs are supported in stand‐alone
mode, and a maximum of 2048 VLANs are supported in stacking mode.
Before Enterprise NOS switches can form a stack, they must meet the following
requirements:
 All switches must be the same model (RackSwitch G8264).
 Each switch must be installed with ENOS, version 8.4 or later. The same release
version is not required, as the Master switch will push a firmware image to each
differing switch which is part of the stack.
 The recommended stacking topology is a bidirectional ring (see Figure 25 on
page 304). To achieve this, two 10Gb or two 40 Gb Ethernet ports on each switch
must be reserved for stacking. By default, 10Gb or 40Gb Ethernet ports 1 and 5
are used.
G8264 also supports stack LAG links that can be configured as follows:

Stack of two units: Maximum of eight 10Gb ports or four 40 Gb ports

Stack of three to eight units: Maximum of four 40Gb ports (two up, two

down) or sixteen 10Gb ports (eight up, eight down)
The cables used for connecting the switches in a stack carry low‐level,

inter‐switch communications as well as cross‐stack data traffic critical to shared
switching functions. Always maintain the stability of stack links to avoid
internal stack reconfiguration.