March 2013 Dell EqualLogic Configuration Guide v14.1 9-100
Table 42 Vertical Stack with Horizontal LAG
Connecting M1000e to Non-Stacked external switch infrastructure
Advantages Concerns
Switch Firmware updates can be made on all
switches without downtime
• Fixed hops between hosts and array volumes
regardless of number of M1000e enclosures
• Supports ability to scale arrays
• Supports ability to scale host.
• Supports sharing SAN with non-M1000e
servers.
Limited scalability of LAG bandwidth.
• Spanning Tree may block some links if a
loop is created.
Other Notes
• Recommend using 10GbE or larger links within inter-switch LAGs to provide better bandwidth
scalability.
• Care needs to be taken to ensure that addition of switches does not cause a spanning tree
reconfiguration.
• Do not interconnect the M-series I/O modules together.
• Additional M1000e enclosures are added in similar fashion to diagram above.