Switch Stacking

Can someone enlighten me what is the difference between VSS and Cisco stackwise technology?

VSS - max 8 switches?
Cisco stackwise - max 9 switches?

Correct me if I am wrong.

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Comments

azaghul

Short and basic answer...

Stackwise is on "stackable" individual switches...eg: 2950s, 2960x, 3750, 3850...max 9 switches per stack, platform dependant, cpu redundancy, common management.

VSS is available on "modular" switches...eg: 4500, 6500...2 switches, supervisor redundancy.

dppagc

So VSS only support 2 switches??

joetest

yup.. Stacked switches are put in the same closet using stack cables. On older stack technologies all you pretty much got out of it was a combined management point. Nowadays you get to combine your backplanes on each switch as if it's one. VSS switches like the 4500x or 6500 is usually separated in 2 closets and is connected in a vss-setup using fiber optics. You get a single management point and their backplane speed combined. You should really look up both technologies - they're pretty popular in todays networks.

Alex90

dppagc wrote: »

So VSS only support 2 switches??

Yep, we have VSS running on our server cores, users cores etc...mainly on 4500.