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Routing & Switching · Intermediate

Switch Stacking

Connecting multiple switches with dedicated stack cables so they operate as one logical switch with one management plane.

Definition

Cisco StackWise elects an active switch (and standby) to run the control plane; Juniper Virtual Chassis and Aruba VSF provide similar capabilities. Cross-stack EtherChannel allows uplinks spread across stack members.

Example

switch 1 priority 15 on a Catalyst 9300 stack

Exam tip

The member with the highest priority becomes active; elections are not preemptive by default.

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