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 .......................................................................... 7
Selecting the Master Unit ................................................................................................ 8
Selecting the Standby Unit .............................................................................................. 8
Updating the Firmware on a Stack ..................................................................................... 9
Automatic Update ...................................................................................................... 9
Manual Update ........................................................................................................ 10
Creating a Separate VLAN for File Downloads ................................................................... 11
Adding a Stack Member with Minimal Interruption ................................................................ 16
Removing a Stack Member with Minimal Interruption ............................................................ 17
Merging Two Operational Stacks ...................................................................................... 18
Synchronizing the Running Configuration between the Master and Standby Units .......................... 18
Master Failover .......................................................................................................... 18
Effect of Master Failover on PoE Devices......................................................................... 18
Stack Member Failover ................................................................................................. 19
Failover Scenarios ....................................................................................................... 19
Scenario 1 .............................................................................................................. 19
Scenario 2 .............................................................................................................. 20
Scenario 3 .............................................................................................................. 21
Nonstop Forwarding ..................................................................................................... 22
Initiating a Warm Failover of the Manager Unit ................................................................. 23
Nonstop Forwarding Scenario....................................................................................... 23
NSF Scenario Configuration via CLI ............................................................................. 25
NSF Example 1 ...................................................................................................... 29
NSF Example 2: ..................................................................................................... 29
NSF Re-convergence Timing ........................................................................................... 30
Medium Configuration .................................................................................................. 30
Small Configuration ..................................................................................................... 31
Stacking CLI Commands ................................................................................................ 31
Stacking Web Interface ................................................................................................. 32
Summary .................................................................................................................. 32

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