PowerConnect 3548 Uplinks

Question

Hello,

I have just purchased two new PowerConnect 3548 switches. Each will be in its own building and connected to form a single (flat Layer 2) network via uplink. My question is, do I have configure anything on the switches (stacking???) or can I just connect one/two of the Gig Cooper ports between the two switches? I think that is all I have to do but I would like to verify so there are no surprises on the day we do the install.

Thanks

DELL-Willy M · Accepted Answer

You can use the copper ports to stack the 2 switches then they would act as one.

Whether you want to keep the switches in stand alone would depend on how you want your network to function.

Here is some information on how to stack the 35XX switches.

PowerConnect 3524

The PowerConnect 3524 provides 24 10/100Mbps ports plus two SFP ports, and two Copper ports

which can be used to forward traffic in a stand-alone device, or as stacking ports when the device is

stacked. The device also provides one RS-232 console port. The PowerConnect 3524 is a stackable

device, but also operates as a stand-alone device.

The front panel contains 24 RJ-45 ports number 1-24. The upper row of ports is marked with

odd numbers 1-23, and the lower row of ports is marked with even numbers 2-24. In addition,

the front panel also contains ports G1 - G2 which are fiber ports and ports G3- G4 which are

copper ports. Ports G3 - G4 can either be used as stacking ports, or used to forward network traffic

in a stand-alone device.

35XX User guide:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/network/pc35xx/en/UG/PDF/en_ug.pdf

Stacking is discussed on page 12 and installation starts on page 44

ajrenuzit · Answer

Thanks much. That does pretty much answer my question.

I have one follow up. I am not sure that I want to do much to further complicate my setup. Its not a large network by any means, so I am probably just going to run each device in standalone mode and connect them via the copper gig port. Is there any major reason to configure stacking instead?

Also - if I connect both copper gig ports on both switches, will that double my throughput between the switches?

Thanks

DELL-Willy M · Answer

If you set up a LAG on the ports you can get higher bandwidth. It is simiar to teaming Nics.

Link Aggregation

Up to eight Aggregated Links may be defined, each with up to eight member ports, to form a single Link

Aggregated Group (LAG). This enables:

• Fault tolerance protection from physical link disruption

• Higher bandwidth connections

• Improved bandwidth granularity

• High bandwidth server connectivity

LAG is composed of ports with the same speed, set to full-duplex operation.

For more information, see "Defining LAG Parameters."

CLI example

console(config)# interface ethernet 1/e11

console(config-if)# channel-group 1 mode on

Networking General

PowerConnect 3548 Uplinks

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