Netgear XSM4324FS User Manual - Page 164

M4300 Intelligent Edge Series Fully Managed Stackable Switches M4300 Series Switch Stacking Overview 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. 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 to 8. The stack master can be any number within that range. Stacking supports the following: • Up to eight switches per stack • Single IP address management through a web browser, the CLI, or SNMP. • Master-slave configuration: • The master retains configuration for entire stack. • Automatic detection of new members, with synchronization of firmware (upgrade or downgrade as needed). • Configuration updates across the stack through a single operation. • Automatic master failover. Fully resilient stack with chain and ring topology. • Hot swapping (insertion and removal) of stack members. Firmware Synchronization and Upgrade All stack members must run the same software version to ensure compatibility within the stack. By default, if a unit is added to the stack and its software version is not the same as the stack master, that unit is not allowed to join the stack. You can enable the Stack Firmware Auto Upgrade feature, which automatically synchronizes the firmware version on the new unit with the version running on the stack master. The synchronization operation might result in either upgrade or downgrade of firmware on the mismatched stack member. Manage Stacking 164 User Manual