Cisco 500 Series Administration Guide

Administration: Stack Management
Stack Topology
75 Cisco 500 Series Stackable Managed Switch Administration Guide
5
Stack in Ring Topology
A ring topology is more reliable than a chain topology. The failure of one link in a
ring does not affect the function of the stack, whereas the failure of one link in a
chain connection might cause the stack to be split.
Topology Discovery
A stack is established by a process called topology discovery. This process is
triggered by a change in the up/down status of a stack port.
The following are examples of events that trigger this process:
• Changing the stack topology from a ring to a chain
• Merging two stacks into a single stack
• Splitting the stack
• Inserting other slave units to the stack, for instance because the units were
previously disconnected from the stack due to a failure. This can happen in
a chain topology if a unit in the middle of the stack fails.
During topology discovery, each unit in a stack exchanges packets, which contain
topology information.
After the topology discovery process is completed, each unit contains the stack
mapping information of all units in the stack.

Cisco 500 Series Specifications

General

Model	Cisco 500 Series
Category	Switch
Mounting	Rack-mountable
Management	Web-based, CLI, SNMP
Ports	24, 48
Port Speed	10/100/1000 Mbps
PoE Support	Available on some models
Switching Capacity	Up to 176 Gbps
MAC Address Table Size	16, 000 entries
Security	ACLs, 802.1X
Quality of Service (QoS)	Yes
Dimensions	Varies by model
Weight	Varies by model
Humidity	10% to 90% non-condensing
Power Supply	Internal
Power Consumption	Varies by model
Jumbo Frame Support	Up to 9216 bytes