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Stacking switches 1

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pinkpanther56

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Jun 15, 2005
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I have two 2910al switches one is a 24 port one is a 48 port. Is it possible to stack them I can only find examples with two or more matching (number of ports) switches.

Thanks.
 
To my knowledge,stacking them is possible. One of them being the master, the other being the candidate.

I haven't found a benefit for the stacking though.
 
I have four NICs in an LACP link on a Procurve switch that connect a SAN to some Xenservers. I've been told that if I stacked two switches then it would be seen as one switch so I could attach two NICs to each switch. This way i'll still have the throughput of four NICs but can guard against the failure of one switch that could corrupt a VM.

Is there a better way to achieve this redundancy?

Thanks.
 
There is a "stacking" module available for those switches however I don't think that will help with what you are referring too. I think that feature is called "server-to-switch distributed trunking" in the HP world. It's not available on the 2910 switch, the 3500 series and up support it.

Is the LACP link between the SAN and the switch or the Xenservers and the switch?
 
The stacking you are talking about is a Cisco thing. HP don't offer it.
 
Not just a Cisco thing, but Vince is correct that HP doesn't seem to offer stacking modules anymore for their stackable switches (I think their plan here is to drive you to the chassis switches if that happens to be your particular need). Plenty of other vendors still offer stacking modules for their own switches, though.

Since you already have the 2910s (and I assume that you have no desire to replace them) you might be best served looking at your NICs to solve this problem. Just about every vendor offers a load balancing / failover solution in their drivers.

If you're using Intel NICs, look into their ALB teaming mode. if you don't need the extra throughput, SFT would also be appropriate.
 
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