Unsure which stacking solution for desired goal

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cariboupackets
Comes here often

Unsure which stacking solution for desired goal

I apologize in advance for my ignorance:

 

I've got a pair of MS425-32s that, to my understanding, support physical and flexible stacking.  I'd like to set them up so they are redundant for each other.  I have a pair of esxi hosts and a pair of storage arrays that will be connected to the 425's.  The SAN units have redundant controllers, and I'd like each one to have a connection to both switches, in case either switch were to fail.

 

What I'm unsure on is whether I should do this as a physical stack or flexible stacking, or if this is even the right way to go.

 

I'd appreciate some help.

 

Thanks!

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Flexible stacking will work like the Physical stacking, and will share the configurations (like the tardicional staking).

 

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

 

It is recommended to configure and use identical port types as flexible stacking ports. For example, 2 x 10Gb/s (SFP+) or 2 x 40Gb/s (QSFP) interfaces can be connected together as flexible stacking ports.

Please note that 10 Gb/s is the minimum speed required to support flexible stacking. 

I am not a Cisco Meraki employee. My suggestions are based on documentation of Meraki best practices and day-to-day experience.

Please, if this post was useful, leave your kudos and mark it as solved.

View solution in original post

5 REPLIES 5
alemabrahao
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

Physical stacking is available on MS210, MS225, MS250, MS350, MS355, MS390, MS410, and MS450 switches, which include dedicated stacking ports.

Flexible stacking is available on MS420 and MS425 switches which do not have dedicated stacking ports; any port on these switches can be configured as a stack port. 

 

MS 420 just supports Flexible stacking and virtual:

 

alemabrahao_0-1674503644719.png

alemabrahao_2-1674503689021.png

 

 

I am not a Cisco Meraki employee. My suggestions are based on documentation of Meraki best practices and day-to-day experience.

Please, if this post was useful, leave your kudos and mark it as solved.

MS 420 and MS 42  just support Flexible stacking and virtual:

 

alemabrahao_0-1674504291362.png

 

I am not a Cisco Meraki employee. My suggestions are based on documentation of Meraki best practices and day-to-day experience.

Please, if this post was useful, leave your kudos and mark it as solved.

Ah I see that, thanks.  So I'm fine with flexible stacking, but I'm unsure still if that's the right approach for what I'm trying to do.  

Would having them stacked make it the easier or better way to have redundancy?  Right now I have one deployed (this was a incremental rollout due to an office move) with a pair of VLANs configured and a single static route.  With the switches stacked, would I be able to use that same original static route, or would each switch need its own?


Thanks!

Flexible stacking will work like the Physical stacking, and will share the configurations (like the tardicional staking).

 

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

 

It is recommended to configure and use identical port types as flexible stacking ports. For example, 2 x 10Gb/s (SFP+) or 2 x 40Gb/s (QSFP) interfaces can be connected together as flexible stacking ports.

Please note that 10 Gb/s is the minimum speed required to support flexible stacking. 

I am not a Cisco Meraki employee. My suggestions are based on documentation of Meraki best practices and day-to-day experience.

Please, if this post was useful, leave your kudos and mark it as solved.

Okay great, thank you for the help.  So I can use the QSFP ports on the switches to flexible stack.

 

Thank you again

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