Installation guide

Configuring Switches in a Stack
SecureStack A2 Installation Guide 3-9
Configuring Switches in a Stack
TheinformationinthefollowingsectionsisimportanttounderstandA2switchoperation
andinstallationsinastackinstallation.
About SecureStack A2 Switch Operation in a Stack
TheSecureStackA2productsarestackableswi tchesthatcanbeadaptedandscaledto
helpmeetyournetworkneeds.Theseswitchesprovideamanagementplatformand
uplinktoanetworkbackboneforastackedgroupofuptoeightA2switches.
Onceinstalledinastack,theswitchesbehaveandperform
asasingleswitch.Assuch,
youcanstartwithasingleswitchandaddmoreswitchesasyournetworkexpands.You
canalsomixdifferentproductsinthesamefamilyinasinglestacktoprovideadesired
combinationofporttypesandfunctionstomatchtherequirementsof
individual
applications.Inallcases,astackofswitchesperformsasonelargeproduct,andis
managedasasinglenetworkentity.
Whenswitchesareinstalledandconnectedasdescribedbackin“ConnectingStacking
Cables”onpage 3‐7, thefollowingoccursduringinitialization:
•Theswitchthatwillmanagethestackis
automatically establishedandisreferredtoas
theManagerswitch.
•AllotherswitchesareestablishedasMemberswitchesinthestack.
•Thehierarchyoftheswitchesthatwillassumethefunctionofbackupmanagerisalso
determinedincasethecurrentmanagermalfunctions,ispowereddown,oris
disconnectedfromthe
stack.
•TheConsoleportonthemanagerswitchremainsactiveforout‐of‐band(local)switch
management,buttheConsoleportoneachmemberswitchisdeactivated.This
enablesyoutosettheIPaddressandsystempasswordusingasingleConsoleport.
Noweachswitchcanbeconfiguredlocally
usingonlythemanager’sConsoleport,or
in‐bandusingaremotedeviceandtheCLIsetofcommandsdescribedinthissection.
ForproceduresusedforvarioustypesofconnectionstotheConsoleport,referto
“ConnectingtoConsolePortforLocalManagement”onpage 3‐15.
Onceastack
iscreated(morethanoneswitchisinterconnected),thefollowingoccurs:
1. Switch(unit)IDsarearbitrarilyassignedonafirst‐come,first‐servedbasis.
2. SwitchIDsaresavedagainsteachmodule.Then,everytimeaboardispower‐cycled,
itwillinitializewiththesameswitchID.Thisisimportantforport
‐specific
information(forexample:fe.4.12isthe12thFastEthernetportonswitchnumber 4).