Setup Stack with existing switches

[El-Guero-HTX]

We have two MS 225's that are being used in production and we want to setup a stack with the Meraki Stacking cables. Has anyone had any experience with this and do you know if we will have to reconfigure all the switches after setting up the stack?

I hope to have as little downtime as possible as I know we have to power off the switches before connecting the stack cables, and setting up the stack. But not sure if we will have to reconfigure all of the switch ports or not.

[aleabrahao]

The steps below explain how to prepare a group of switches for physical stacking, how to stack them together, and how to configure the stack in Dashboard.

1. Add the switches into a Dashboard network. This can be a new Dashboard network for these switches, or an existing network with other switches. Do not configure the stack in Dashboard yet.
2. With all switches powered off and links disconnected, connect the switches together via stacking cables in a ring topology (as shown in the following image). To create a full ring, start by connecting switch 1/stack port 1 to switch 2/stack port 2, then switch 2/stack port 1 to switch 3/stack port 2 and so forth, with the bottom switch connecting to the top switch to complete the ring.

3. Connect a single uplink from 1 switch of the stack. Power on all the switches, then waits several minutes for them to download the latest firmware and updates from Dashboard. The switches may reboot during this process.

• The power LEDs on the front of each switch will blink during this process.
• Once the switches are done downloading and installing the firmware, their power LEDs will stay solid white or green.

4. Configure the switch stack in Dashboard. If Dashboard has already detected the correct stack under Detected potential stacks, click Provision this stack to automatically configure the stack.

NOTE: If you have opted into the MS AutoStacking Early Access beta Dashboard will automatically attempt to provision detected potential stacks for you. This has the same effect as clicking the "Provision this stack" button, and Dashboard will only attempt this once. If Dashboard is unable to auto provision the stack, the switches will appear on the same page in the Detected stacks that failed auto provisioning section, and the stack will need to be manually provisioned using the Provision this stack button once the cause of the provisioning failure has been fixed.

Full doc.

https://documentation.meraki.com/MS/Stacking/Switch_Stacks#Configuring_a_Physical_Switch_Stack

[mrsedam1]

You will not need to reconfigure the port, they will keep their configuration.