Dell PowerConnect 7048   - Page 57

Master Failover with Transparent Transition The stacking feature supports a Standby or backup unit that assumes the Master unit role if the Master unit in the stack fails. As soon as a Master failure is detected in the stack, the Standby unit initializes the control plane and enables all other stack units with the current configuration. The Standby unit maintains a synchronized copy of the running configuration for the stack. Nonstop Forwarding on the Stack The Nonstop Forwarding (NSF) feature allows the forwarding plane of stack units to continue to forward packets while the control and management planes restart as a result of a power failure, hardware failure, or software fault on the stack management unit. This type of operation is called nonstop forwarding. When the management unit fails, only the switch ASICs on the management unit need to be restarted. Hot Add/Delete and Firmware Synchronization You can add and remove units to and from the stack without cycling the power. When you add a unit, the Stack Firmware Synchronization feature automatically synchronizes the firmware version with the version running on the stack master. The synchronization operation may result in either upgrade or downgrade of firmware on the mismatched stack member. Security Features Configurable Access and Authentication Profiles You can configure rules to limit access to the switch management interface based on criteria such as access type and source IP address of the management host. You can also require the user to be authenticated locally or by an external server, such as a RADIUS server. For information about configuring access and authentication profiles, see "Controlling Management Access" on page 169. Switch Features 57