Netgear M5300-52G3 Web Management User Guide - Page 68

ProSafe M5300 Switch Stacking A stackable switch is a switch that is fully functional operating as a stand-alone unit but can also be set-up to operate together with up to seven other switches. This group of switches shows the characteristics of a single switch while having the port capacity of the sum of the combined switches. From the Stacking link under the System tab, you can access the following pages: • Stack Configuration on page 72 • Stack Port Configuration on page 74 • Stack Port Diagnostics on page 76 • Stack Firmware Synchronization on page 77 One of the switches in the stack controls the operation of the stack. This switch is called the stack master. The remaining switches in the stack are stack members. The stack members use stacking technology to behave and work together as a unified system. Layer 2 and higher protocols present the entire switch stack as a single entity to the network. The stack master is the single point of stack-wide management. From the stack master, you configure the following: • System-level (global) features that apply to all stack members • Interface-level features for all interfaces on any stack member A switch stack is identified in the network by its network IP address. The network IP address is assigned according to the MAC address of the stack master. Every stack member is uniquely identified by its own stack member number, which is from 1-6. The stack master can be any number within that range. Stack Features Stacking on the ProSafe M5300 switches supports the following: • Up to eight switches per stack, which can be any combination of the following switch models: • M5300 Series (all models) • GSM7328S • GSM7352S • GSM7328FS • GSM7328Sv2 • GSM7352Sv2 • GSM7228PS • GSM7252PS. Configuring System Information 68