Switch stack Technology 1. catlyst 1900 ------- most of them use chrysanthemum chains (I think there is no difference with cascade), but cisco thinks they are stacks: (www.2cto.com chrysanthemum chains: as the name implies, A vswitch is connected in a string (using a crossover line ). In this case, the first server must communicate with the fourth server, and must pass through two or three servers. We can imagine that data needs to be forwarded multiple times during transmission. The communication speed between computers located on different switch ports is greatly reduced. It also affects the communication of other computers. It is easy to form a congestion. Switch1 ---- switch2 ---- switch3 --- switc42, catalyst 2900xl --- use a dedicated cable (fast Etherchannel) and stack module (castlyst 2916mxl -- I bought one from the root) approximate figure: catalyst 2900XL | Catalyst 2900 M-XL ------ Catalyst 2900XL | ------ Catalyst 2900 XL | the speed of the stacked port such as Catalyst 2900 XL is similar to that of a single port. 3. For the stacking of Catalyst 3500XL/2900XL, two stack methods can be selected: Chrysanthemum method (providing 1g bandwidth) or point-to-point method (providing 2G bandwidth ). A: Half Duplex chrysanthemum chain switch ---- switch --- switch B: Half Duplex chrysanthemum chain redundancy switch ---- switch --- switch | ______________________________ | c: point-to-point method: you can use 3508g-xl to stack 3500xl with 2900xl. Switch ---- switch --- switch | ...... | _______ | ........ | --------------- | .................... | switch .......................... | d: point-to-point redundancy: Two 3508g-xl servers can be used to stack 3500xl and 2900xl. (No picture, too tired) to use: 1 m long or 50 cm long (CAB-GS-1M or CAB-GS- 50CM) and dedicated Gigabit stacked card GigaStack GBIC (WS-X3500-XL) (CAB-GS- 50CM stacked cable is included in the card)