Dell PowerConnect PC7024 Technical White Paper
Stacking gigabit ethernet switches
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Also See for PowerConnect PC7024:
- Stacking instructions (37 pages) ,
- Reference manual (1788 pages) ,
- Configuration manual (1270 pages)
Related Manuals for Dell PowerConnect PC7024
Summary of Contents for Dell PowerConnect PC7024
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Page 1: Series Switches
Stacking Dell PowerConnect 7000 Series Switches A Dell Technical White Paper www.dell.com support.dell.com •... - Page 2 ERRORS AND TECHNICAL INACCURACIES. THE CONTENT IS PROVIDED AS IS, WITHOUT EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND. © 2011 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this material in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of Dell Inc. is strictly forbidden. For more information, contact Dell.
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Page 3: Table Of Contents
Stacking Dell PowerConnect 7000 Series Switches Contents Introduction ........................ 2 Applicability ......................2 Stacking and Management .................... 2 Stacking and Performance .................... 3 Stacking and Redundancy ..................... 3 Mixing M6348 and PC7000 Series Switches in a Stack ............5 Power-Up Sequencing Considerations ................5 Initial Installation and Power-up of a Stack ................ -
Page 4: Introduction
Stacking Dell PowerConnect 7000 Series Switches Introduction This white paper explains the purpose and operation of the stacking feature in the Dell™ PowerConnect™ 7000 Series Gigabit Ethernet switches. The PowerConnect 7000 series is Dell’s most advanced switching product line, offering advanced switching capabilities including high-density, high- performance stacking, and 10 Gigabit Ethernet capabilities that scale from the small business to the Enterprise Edge. -
Page 5: Stacking And Performance
Stacking Dell PowerConnect 7000 Series Switches required for reconfiguration. Additional stack members can immediately utilize existing configuration information such as routing and switching configurations, VLANs, ACLs, port profiles, and security certificates. Stacking and Performance For situations where there is a need to pass traffic between switches and the aggregate bandwidth... - Page 6 Stacking Dell PowerConnect 7000 Series Switches # F igure 2 shows a recommended stacking configuration with dual stacking modules on each switch. Each switch connects to another with 128 Gbps of total bandwidth (4 ports @ 16 Gbps Tx and Rx each). Note that in the recommended configuration, the dual stacking cables from each module both connect to the same switch.
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Page 7: Mixing M6348 And Pc7000 Series Switches In A Stack
Stacking Dell PowerConnect 7000 Series Switches Mixing M6348 and PC7000 Series Switches in a Stack PC7000 series and M6348 can be used interchangeably in a stack of up to 12 units. As with PC7000- series only stacks, all switches in a mixed stack must have the same firmware version. Starting with the 4.1.0.6 software release, a single image supports both switches. - Page 8 Stacking Dell PowerConnect 7000 Series Switches members of the stack can be powered on sequentially by powering up the switch adjacent to the last switch powered on. A stack of units is managed and acts as a single entity when the units are connected together and are operational.
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Page 9: Initial Installation And Power-Up Of A Stack
Stacking Dell PowerConnect 7000 Series Switches Initial Installation and Power-up of a Stack Follow these instructions to create a stack: NOTE: Install units in a rack whenever possible to prevent the units and cables from being disturbed. 1. Install all stacking cables. Fully connect all cables, including the redundant stack link. -
Page 10: Selecting The Master Unit
Stacking Dell PowerConnect 7000 Series Switches Selecting the Master Unit A stack manager is elected or re-elected based on the following considerations, in order: • Whether the switch that was previously the stack manager. • Whether the switch has the higher MAC address. -
Page 11: Updating The Firmware On A Stack
Stacking Dell PowerConnect 7000 Series Switches To configure the standby unit via the Web interface, view the Stacking > Unit Configuration page and select Standby for the Unit Type. Updating the Firmware on a Stack Automatic Update By default, firmware synchronization is performed automatically when a unit is powered up on a stack. -
Page 12: Manual Update
Stacking Dell PowerConnect 7000 Series Switches 4. Reload the stack command. This resets the entire stack. The switches stop forwarding during the reset. 5. When the stack has reloaded, check the running firmware version using the show version command. Check that all stack members have joined the stack using the show stack command. -
Page 13: Creating A Separate Vlan For File Downloads
Stacking Dell PowerConnect 7000 Series Switches Mode........... FTP FTP Server IP........10.27.64.141 FTP Path........FTP Filename........PC7000_4.0.0.6.stk Data Type........Code Destination Filename......image Creating a Separate VLAN for File Downloads When updating the firmware, it is helpful to keep the in-band management port in a different VLAN and configure the port VLAN ID (PVID) appropriately to avoid the possibility of network congestion or flooding issues impacting the file download. - Page 14 Stacking Dell PowerConnect 7000 Series Switches To perform the same configuration by using the Web interface, use the following steps: From the Switching > VLAN > VLAN Membership page, click Add. 2. From the Add VLAN page, enter 1000 in the VLAN ID field and click Apply.
- Page 15 Stacking Dell PowerConnect 7000 Series Switches 5. From the Show VLAN menu on the Switching > VLAN > VLAN Membership page, select 1000. 6. Click the Static box for port 17 so that the letter U (untagged) appears in the box.
- Page 16 Stacking Dell PowerConnect 7000 Series Switches 9. In the Interface field, select VLAN 1000. In the Routing Mode field, select Enable. In the IP Address Configuration Method field, select Manual. In the IP Address field, enter 192.168.21.11. In the Subnet Mask field, enter 255.255.255.0. Click Apply.
- Page 17 Stacking Dell PowerConnect 7000 Series Switches Click Apply. Navigate to the System > Management Security > Access Profile page. Choose the Access Profile tab. Enable the Set Active Access Profile check box in the MGMT_VLAN Access Profile and click Apply.
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Page 18: Adding A Stack Member With Minimal Interruption
Stacking Dell PowerConnect 7000 Series Switches Adding a Stack Member with Minimal Interruption When adding a new member to a stack, make sure that only the stack cables and no host-facing network cables are connected before powering up the new unit. Make sure the end-user links are not connected to any ports on the unit being added and the new member is powered off. -
Page 19: Removing A Stack Member With Minimal Interruption
Stacking Dell PowerConnect 7000 Series Switches Removing a Stack Member with Minimal Interruption NOTE: This migration process can be disruptive, so schedule some outage time. To minimize any disruption, plan on having one or more test scenarios prepared in order to verify that the migrated ports are operating properly. -
Page 20: Merging Two Operational Stacks
Stacking Dell PowerConnect 7000 Series Switches Merging Two Operational Stacks The recommended procedure for merging two operational stacks is as follows: Caution! This procedure is disruptive and requires a network outage. 1. Always power off all units in one stack before connecting to another stack. -
Page 21: Stack Member Failover
Stacking Dell PowerConnect 7000 Series Switches If PoE is enabled on a switch port shortly before a master failover and the hardware status change had not yet been communicated to the backup unit, the switch will continue to provide PoE power even though PoE is not enabled for the port in the configuration on the new master. -
Page 22: Scenario 2
Stacking Dell PowerConnect 7000 Series Switches console#show switch Management Standby Preconfig Plugged-in Switch Code Switch Status Status Model ID Model ID Status Version ------ ----------- ------------ --------- ----------- ------------ -------- Stack Mbr Standby PCT7048 PCT7048 4.0.0.6 Unassigned PCT7048 Not Present 0.0.0.0... -
Page 23: Scenario 3
Stacking Dell PowerConnect 7000 Series Switches Scenario 3 The following example contains a similar condition with a master unit failover and consequent stack split with five units in the stack, as # F igure 5 shows. Stack Split with Manager Failure Figure 5. -
Page 24: Nonstop Forwarding
Stacking Dell PowerConnect 7000 Series Switches Nonstop Forwarding A switch can be described in terms of three semi-independent functions called the forwarding plane, the control plane, and the management plane: • Forwarding Plane — The set of hardware components that forward data packets without intervention from a control CPU, sometimes called the Data Plane. -
Page 25: Initiating A Warm Failover Of The Manager Unit
Stacking Dell PowerConnect 7000 Series Switches To take full advantage of nonstop forwarding, layer 2 connections to neighbors should be via port channels that span two or more stack units, and layer 3 routes should be equal-cost multi-path (ECMP) routes. ECMP provides load balancing, using multiple next hops to a single destination via physical ports on two or more units. - Page 26 Stacking Dell PowerConnect 7000 Series Switches Nonstop Forwarding Example Figure 6. Host 1 Video stream 192.168.5.100 Router 1 OSPF PIM-SM VLAN 10 Spanning Tree IGMP VLAN 20 Switch 1 Switch 2 192.168.20.101 192.168.20.100 Host 3 Host 2 Page 24...
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Page 27: Nsf Scenario Configuration Via Cli
Stacking Dell PowerConnect 7000 Series Switches NSF Scenario Configuration via CLI Router 1: configure terminal hostname Router_1 ip multicast ip pim rp-address 192.168.10.1 239.0.1.1 255.255.255.0 ip pim sparse vlan database vlan 10 exit interface vlan 10 ip address 192.168.10.1 255.255.255.0... - Page 28 Stacking Dell PowerConnect 7000 Series Switches Stack: configure terminal vlan database vlan 10,20 exit vlan 10 name “Routed interface to PIM RP via port-channel 1” exit vlan 20 name “Routed interface to downstream switched network” exit hostname "nsf-stack" spanning-tree mode rst...
- Page 29 Stacking Dell PowerConnect 7000 Series Switches exit interface gi2/0/10 no spanning-tree auto-portfast channel-group 1 mode auto exit interface gi2/0/20 switchport mode general switchport general pvid 20 switchport general acceptable-frame-type tagged-only switchport general allowed vlan add 20 tagged switchport general allowed vlan remove 1...
- Page 30 Stacking Dell PowerConnect 7000 Series Switches interface gi1/0/5 switchport mode general switchport general pvid 20 switchport general acceptable-frame-type tagged-only switchport general allowed vlan add 20 tagged switchport general allowed vlan remove 1 exit exit Switch 2 configure terminal hostname Switch-2...
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Page 31: Nsf Example 1
Stacking Dell PowerConnect 7000 Series Switches NSF Example 1 Assume Unit 1 is the stack manager and Unit 2 is the standby switch. The following scenarios illustrate how the network recovers when Unit 1 is powered down. • With NSF disabled: Unit 2 takes over as manager with a cold restart and clears the hardware tables. -
Page 32: Nsf Re-Convergence Timing
Stacking Dell PowerConnect 7000 Series Switches NSF Re-convergence Timing As mentioned in the previous section, NSF protects against failures by check-pointing information to a standby unit. In an NSF-protected stack, the worst-case scenario is when the master unit fails. The following statistics show representative re-convergence times of an NSF-enabled standby switch as measured from the detection of failure. -
Page 33: Small Configuration
Stacking Dell PowerConnect 7000 Series Switches Small Configuration • 6 switches stacked • 4 VLANs, all ports are members of all VLANs • 2/2 static/dynamic lags with 8 members each • 1 MSTP instance with VLANs • 15 ACLs applied on 15 interfaces •... -
Page 34: Stacking Web Interface
Summary This paper has described the theory and operation of stacking on the Dell PowerConnect 7000 series of switches. Delivering significant rack density, the PowerConnect 7000 gives network administrators the flexibility to maximize server and workstation connectivity in a 1U form factor. Stacking provides the ultimate in ease of use and manageability with automatic firmware version synchronization and a single management interface for up to 12 switches.