Meraki MS225-48FP stacking configuration

[MerakiLOL]

Hey guys,

I'm looking at the documentation of Meraki on stacking theses L3 switches and can't find anything on switch priority or election of members. Is there a concept of a master/root switch?

I also saw that you can only have 1 uplink per stack to reach the Meraki cloud, is that right? It doesn't make sense to me...

Documentation is really confusing.

Thank you for your help!

ML

[NetworkingGuy]

I stack 2 MS225s or MS350s at most of my sites. I use a physical stack.

When stacked, you only need 1 uplink to reach the cloud but if you have 1 per switch it would then be redundant. If each switch had an uplink, it stays redundant. 

All the switches in a stack act like one switch. So you can LAG ports from different switches together or clone configurations from switch members to another member. There is a section for stacking switches under your Network, then Switch, then Switch Stacks. 

I was not able to find anything about a master. However, from what I can tell, the 1st switch is the master. So, boot it first. Should it fail over, the other becomes the master. I have 1 ISP into one switch and another ISP into the other switch so to me the master does not matter as much.

I have been told that there are a limit to the amount of switches you can have in a single stack. I've been told 8 switches but I'd have to Google around to confirm.

[mmmmmmark]

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@NetworkingGuy wrote:

I have been told that there are a limit to the amount of switches you can have in a single stack. I've been told 5 switches but I'd have to Google around to confirm.

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Up to eight switches can be stacked together, either physically or virtually.

[MRCUR]

All of the stack master election happens behind the scenes. You don't need to configure any of that - just create the stack in Dashboard and that's it. 

You can have multiple uplinks in a stack as long as they are in a LAG (and they can be on separate physical switches). If they are not in a LAG, only one will be used and the rest will be blocked by STP. 

[MerakiLOL]

Really?

I mean, physically if I want to stack my switches so they would be represented the way it will show up in my portal, that would make more sense to me then just having a PLUG & PRAY approach, they must have a more detailed documentation on this, no?

So the real logic here is, don't mind the stack and just refer yourself to the mac address or the name that you assigned to it?

ML

[MRCUR]

See screenshot of an active stack. Note that I name switches so they are numbered, and they are physically in the rack and stacked in this order. So the screenshot in Dashboard is accurate as to how the stack actually is. 

Meraki is all about plug & play. Don't buy Meraki if you want manual processes, CLI access, etc. 

[mmmmmmark]

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@MerakiLOL wrote:

I mean, physically if I want to stack my switches so they would be represented the way it will show up in my portal, that would make more sense to me then just having a PLUG & PRAY approach, they must have a more detailed documentation on this, no?

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If you want the stack to display in the portal a certain way, then name the stack members like so:

Switch1

Switch2

Switch3

As they'll be listed alphabetically.

Thanks,

Mark

[ww]

the master is the switch with the lowest MAC address.

[whistleblower]

so the tie-breaker is always the lowest device MAC-Address which determines the Stack-Master and the device-type (e.g. stacking MS225 and MS210) does‘nt matter or influence the election also?