Administrator Guide

198 Stacking
N1500 Series switches. Dell Networking N2000 Series switches only stack
with other Dell Networking N2000 Series switches. Likewise, Dell Networking
N3000 Series switches only stack with other Dell Networking N3000 Series
switches. Dell Networking N4000 Series switches only stack with other Dell
Networking N4000 Series switches.
How is the Stack Master Selected?
A stack master is elected or re-elected based on the following considerations,
in order:
1
The switch is currently the stack master.
2 The switch has the higher MAC address.
3 A unit is selected as standby by the administrator, and a fail over action is
manually initiated or occurs due to stack master failure.
In most cases, a switch that is added to an existing stack will become a stack
member, and not the stack master. When a switch is added to the stack, one
of the following scenarios takes place regarding the management status of the
new switch:
• If the switch has the stack master function enabled but another stack
master is already active, then the switch changes its configured stack
master value to disabled.
• If the stack master function is unassigned and there is another stack
master in the system then the switch changes its configured stack master
value to disabled.
• If the stack master function is enabled or unassigned and there is no other
stack master in the system, then the switch becomes stack master.
• If the stack master function is disabled, the unit remains a non-stack
master.
If the entire stack is powered OFF and ON again, the unit that was the stack
master
before the reboot will remain the stack master after the stack resumes
operation.
The unit number for the switch can be manually configured. To avoid unit-
number conflicts, one of the following scenarios takes place when a new
member is added to the stack: