3548 Stacking ports... Fiber?

Thank you for looking into this,  I believe that menu option was enabled via firmware updates after the user manual was created so its information may be out of date, unfortunately the only 35XX I have are in production so I can't test using G1 and G2 as the stacking ports (by selecting fiber ports as the stacking ports in the configuration)

I took some time to search the release notes available in the firmware download zip file.  I'm not seeing any reference to adding the option of stacking thru the fiber ports. I did find in the User Guide (below) that it even references the stack port - copper/fiber option. So it looks like it has been there a long time.  At least since the User Guide was created.

I'm still researching as to why this is the case.  It may just be a simple error in the creation of the Web interface page.

Hmm, nobody has a couple of power connects they can try this with? :)

Any luck Willy?

I have found no information or individual that states that it is possible to stack with the fiber ports.  At this point it is looking like the option is a dead function inside the WebGUI.

While that may indeed be an undocumented and unsupported feature, I have confirmed that it works.  I had 2 spare 3548Ps lying around and stacked them successfully via fiber.  My steps:

1) Stacked the switches with copper.

2) Insured both were on the latest firmware and boot code

3) Changed the stack port from "Copper" to "Fiber" in the Web GUI (I cannot find this command anywhere in the CLI..)

4) Shutdown the stack, uncabled the copper ports, cabled the fiber ports with GBICs and LC-LC patch cords: 1/G1->2/G2, 1/G2->2/G1

5) Powered the stack back on

I've confirmed that the stack is enabled, and passed traffic from a port on one switch to a port on the other:

TOStack# show stack

Unit  MAC Address        Software    Master    Uplink     Downlink   Status

----  -----------------  ----------  --------  ---------  ---------  -------

1     00:25:64:1b:ac:58  2.0.0.51    Enabled   2          2          master    

2     00:25:64:1b:98:e2  2.0.0.51    Enabled   1          1          backup    

Topology is Ring

Unit Unit Id After Reset

---- -------------------

1            1          

2            2          

TOStack#

A "SHOW INT STATUS" shows that 1/g1 and 1/g2 are not present, which is always the case for stack ports.  Conversely, the copper gigabit ports 1/g3 and 1/g4 are present and available:

1/e47    100M-Copper    --      --     --     --  Down           --     --    

1/e48    100M-Copper    --      --     --     --  Down           --     --    

1/g1          --        --      --     --     --  Not Present    --     --    

1/g2          --        --      --     --     --  Not Present    --     --    

1/g3     1G-Copper      --      --     --     --  Down           --     --    

1/g4     1G-Copper      --      --     --     --  Down           --     --    

TOStack# show bootvar

Unit  Image  Filename   Version    Date                    Status

----  -----  ---------  ---------  ---------------------   -----------

1     1      image-1    2.0.0.51   11-Feb-2013  10:45:21   Active*

1     2      image-2    2.0.0.51   11-Feb-2013  10:45:21   Not active

2     1      image-1    2.0.0.51   11-Feb-2013  10:45:21   Active*

2     2      image-2    2.0.0.51   11-Feb-2013  10:45:21   Not active

"*" designates that the image was selected for the next boot

TOStack#

Of course as this is probably unsupported, use at your own risk.  There are plenty of potential applications of stacking over fiber however, including a distributed campus stack.  This also frees up the copper gigabit ports for cascading to non-stackable switches or servers.