Question about stacking

[4everlearning]

Hi Guys,

My understanding of stacking is that you you have up to 8 switches stacked together where there can be treated as one switch but at the same time you can utilize the ports for all of the switches.... is that right ? also is there other benefits of stacking other than increasing the number of ports that can be used?

Last question is that cisco 2960-X switch says that it has a switching capacity of 216 Gbps... and it supports stacking bandwidth of 80 Gbps 8 members.... why can't the full switch capacity be used for stacking per member ?

does that mean if we have 8 switches we can use only 10Gbps per switch for stacking ? and the rest of switch capacity will be used without stacking ?

[Leo Laohoo · Accepted solution]

My understanding of stacking is that you you have up to 8 switches stacked together where there can be treated as one switch but at the same time you can utilize the ports for all of the switches.... is that right ?

Depends on the model of switch, but stacking can be 4 (2960S and 3650/3850 running old firmware) and 9.  

also is there other benefits of stacking other than increasing the number of ports that can be used

The biggest selling point of stacking is redundancy.  If one member of the stack fails, the rest of the stack will continue humming along.  

[Charles Hill · Accepted solution]

Link below discusses the benefits of stacking 2960 and 3750 switches.

http://www.cisco1900router.com/stacking-cisco-2960-s-vs-cisco-3750-switches.html

To Stack or not to Stack?

Link below provides pros and cons for stacking 3750 switches.

https://www.curvature.com/StackingSwitches

Link below discusses the advantage of stack power

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/lan/catalyst3750x_3560x/software/release/12-2_53_se/configuration/guide/3750xscg/swstkpwr.html

Hope this helps.

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Thanks.