Disclaimer
The Author of this posting offers the information contained within this posting without consideration and with the reader's understanding that there's no implied or expressed suitability or fitness for any purpose. Information provided is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as rendering professional advice of any kind. Usage of this posting's information is solely at reader's own risk.
Liability Disclaimer
In no event shall Author be liable for any damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, damages for loss of use, data or profit) arising out of the use or inability to use the posting's information even if Author has been advised of the possibility of such damage.
Posting
Sure, ports can fail without the whole switch failing, but edge redundancy, such as using dual links (often configured as a bundled channel), between the host and two stack members addresses both switch port failure and stack member failure.
Unless your security cameras support dual links, your going to have a single point of failure at the edge port.
Next best options, as you've already noted, would be to have, on-line, "warm" spare ports that you can quickly repatch into. Ideally you have enough spare ports to allowing repatching in case a whole switch member fails.
(BTW, when you have spare ports, you don't have to set aside a whole stack member, sitting empty. For example, instead of having a dual stack with only one switch member populated, and the other not at all, split the populated ports across both stack members. That way, if a stack member fails, you don't lose all your hosts, only half. [With cameras, depending on their views, you might be able to overlap their coverage across multiple stack member.])
