Reference Guide

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Stacking
Stacking provides a single point of management and network interface controller (NIC) teaming for high
availability and higher throughput.
Stacking is supported on the 10 GbE data ports of Ethernet module. Stacking is not supported on Fibre
Channel/Ethernet Universal Port Modules. You can connect up to six S5000 switches in a single stack
using port cables; no special cabling is required.
For information about the High Availability features supported on a stacked S5000 switch, refer to the
High Availability (HA) chapter.
NOTE: You cannot stack an S5000 switch with other S-Series switches.
Stacking S5000 Switches
A stack of S5000 switches operates as a virtual chassis with management units (master and standby) and
member units.
The Dell Networking OS operating software elects a primary (master) and secondary (standby)
management unit; all other units are member units. The forwarding database resides on the master
switch; all other stack units maintain a synchronized local copy. Each unit in the stack makes forwarding
decisions based on their local copy.
The following illustration shows an example of how you can stack four S5000 switches and the role
played by each switch in the stack. Connect the S5000 switches to operate as a single stack using only 10
GbE ports on Ethernet pluggable modules. Notice that the four 10GbE ports in a stack group on one
switch are connected to the four 10 GbE ports in a stack group on a peer stacked switch in order to
maximize throughput. For more information, refer to Supported Stacking Topologies.
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Stacking