Part 1

 In a topology like this, we have to configure Spanning Tree, HSRP, link aggregation
and other technologies to try and optimize the way that this topology works.
 ->->as an example, we made a Switch 1,The Root for some VLANs and then we
made Switch 2, The Root for other VLANs. So, we managed to optimize a Layer 2
forwarding by optimizing Spanning Tree. But then to optimize the routing in this
topology, we have to configure HSRP and then configure Switch 1 as the HSRP
primary for the same VLANs as the root switch.
 In other words, if switch 1 is the Spanning Tree Root for VLAN 10. then we have
to make it to the HSRP primary router for VALN 10. So,
 in other words, we have to optimize both Spannig Tree as well as HSRP to make
sure that they are aligned.
 In other words, if Switch 1 is the Spanning Tree Root for VLAN 10, we don't want
to make a switch 2, the HSRP primary router for VLAN 10. We want to match
them up to optimize the forwarding.
 ->So, it's a lot of additional work that you need to do here.
 You need to configure Spanning Tree.
 You need to configure HSRP.
 You need to configure Link Aggregation.
 you've got to Match it all up.
 It's not very efficient. Is there a better way of doing this?

Part 2

 And fortunately, the answer is yes, there is a better way of doing this. I've done a
search in Google for Cisco stacking images and you'll find many images such as the
following: showing you examples of Cisco switches being stacked.
 Now they are different technologies for doing this. In other words, they are different
to stacking technologies. One of the oldest is stackwise which was used on the 3750
 switches. But again, if you do a search in Google where you have a look at some of
the Cisco documentation you'll see a lot of examples of different stacking
technologies that can be used to stack the Cisco switches.
 ->So, what's the advantage of stacking switches in this way.
 In brief when you stack switches they appear to be a single switch to the rest of the
network. You configure it as a single switch. They act as a single switch. Protocol
such as Spanning Tree and CDP, see that switch as a single switch.
 So again, Cisco has various technologies that you can use to stack switches or
Aggregate Chassis.
 ->So, we have these terms, switch stacking and Chassis Aggregation. Separate
physical switches work together and cooperate together to act and appear as a
single switch rather than multiple discrete switches.
 As an analogy it's as if the switches are acting as blades in a Chassis based
switch
 Switch Stacking is often used at the Access Layer and Chassis Aggregation is often
used at the distribution and core layer of a network.
 So, if you've got multiple access layer switches or multiple distribution or core layer
switches, rather than you having to configure each switch individually, and configure
protocols such a Spanning Tree, VTP, CDP and so forth. you configure multiple
physical switches as if they one switch.
 They have a MAC Address table. They run protocols as if they were a single
switch and share a MAC Address table.
 So, when you stack switches at the Access Layer.
 you're literally creating a stack of switches and joined together via special cables.
So, a stack of physical switches in a wiring closet as an example. can act as a
single switch.
 You would manage the stack with a single management IP address.
 You would telnet or SSH to one switch, the one that has the management IP
address and not have to telnet or SSH to multiple switches.
 There's one configuration file which is included across all the physical switches.
 Spanning Tree, CDP and VTP are running on one switch not on multiple switches.
 The ports on each physical switch appear to be part of the same logical switch. In
other words, you may have four physical switches each having their own physical
ports. But logically you've got one switch with all of those ports.
 There's one MAC Address table that references all the ports on all physical
switches.
 There are some additional advantages, but the moral of the story is you have a
single virtual switch that you are managing, rather than four separate discrete
switches.
Now to connect these switches together you use special hardware ports called stacking
ports. Again, they are different Cisco technologies.
 We've got as an example Cisco Flex Stack and Flex Stack plus Stacking
technology.
 you would as an example insert a stacking module in each switch and then connect
them with a stacking cable.
  Different Stacking technologies work on different switches. So, Flex stack and Flex
Stack Plus all supported by 2960 switches,
 such as the 2960S, 2960R, 2960X and 2960XR switch a families.3750 switches which
are older switches support stack wise.
 ->Now what are these Stacking cables do, is they form a ring between the switches.
In other words, the switches are connected in a series with the last switch connected
back to the first switch as shown in the topology.
 By using full duplex on each link. The stacking modules and cables create two paths
to forward data between the physical Switches and the stack.
 The switches use these connections to communicate between the switches in the
stack, as well as to Forward frames and perform other overhead functions.

Part 3

 Noted that each stacking module has two ports with which it's used to connect to
another switches Stacking Module.
 ->So as an example, if you've got four switches, each switch has a stacking module
and four cables are used to connect the four switches together.
 The way you think of this, is the switches are a stack of switches in the same rack.
One of the reasons for doing that is that the stacking cables are very short in length,
so it's expected that the switches are physically positioned next to each other on top
of each other. As an example, some of the Cisco stacking cables are only half a meter
in length or one meter in length or three meters in length.
 ->Again, you need to think of a switch stack as a logical single switch. You may have
four physical switches but logically the acting is one switch.
 One of the switches in the stack becomes the Stack master and it's used to control
the rest of the switches in the stack.
 The physical stacking cables connect the physical switches to each other and allow
for communication between the switches and the stack. But the master switches in
control of the stack.
 ->If as an example you have four switches in a stack. and a frame arrives on switch 4
and needs to exit out of switch 3. But switch 1 is the master switch.
 Switches 1, 3 and 4, All need to communicate over the stack links to Forward he
frame. Switches 1, 3 and 4 would need to communicate with each other over the
stack links to forward the frame.
 Switch 1 being the master switch would match the Ethernet frame to the MAC
address table and would then decide out of which port to forward the frame.
 Think of the master switch as the brain of the stack.
 ->Logically in a topology like this. We have two physical switches. But logically they
are a single switch. and the same would be true if we had four switches.
Part 4
 ->->In a typology like this we may have full access which is connected via stacking
cables. So physically it would look like this. but logically it looks like this.
 The switches appear to be a single switch to the rest of the network and you
configure them as if they are a single switch.
 We now have four uplinks to each distribution switch.
 ->So physically they connected as follows with each access switch having one
connection to each distribution switch.
 ->But logically we have four physical cables to each distribution switch. which then
allows us to use EtherChannel to the distribution switch.

 So rather than using Spanning Tree across these uplinks, where one of the ports is
forwarding and one of the ports is blocking.
 We've now created an EtherChannel to each distribution switch.
 This kind of setup simplifies the configuration and management of the network.
 from a Spanning Tree point of view, rather than having six switches involved in
the Spanning tree. We now only have three switches involved in the Spanning
Tree.
 So, it's much easier to configure. Much easier to understand as well as to predict
what happens when there's a failure in the network.
 Uploading across an EtherChannel is also more efficient than using Spanning
Tree to block one port and forward on another port.

Part 5

 You want to use stacking technology you need to buy the right switches. so
essentially you need to buy the right product for the feature that you want.
 As I mentioned Cisco have supported stacking for a long time. Switches such as the
3750 have supported Stackwise for many years.
 ->Here are some examples, FlexStack was introduced in 2010, FlexStack plus was
introduced in 2013.
 The switches that support FlexStack are the 2960S and 2960X. for FlexStack plus you
need a 2960X or 2960XR.
 The speed of a single stack length in both directions using full duplex is 10 gigabits
per second for FlexStack and 20 gigabits per second for FlexStack plus.
 The maximum number of switches supported in one stack is 4 for FlexStack and 8 for
FlexStack plus.
 In the real world have a look on the Cisco documentation and the data sheets for
any switch that you want to buy to ensure that it supports the speeds and
capabilities that you need.
 Now Chassis Aggregation is another Cisco technology which allows you to make
multiple switches operate as a single switch.
 From a big picture perspective. In a lot of cases Switch Stacking is used after the
Access Layer whereas Chassis Aggregation is used for more powerful switches used
in the distribution and core layers. So, in summary Chassis Aggregation is used for
higher end switches, as an example Chassis based switches used in the distribution
and code layers of Campus networks.
 It does not require special hardware adapters but rather uses Ethernet interfaces on
switches.
 It typically aggregates only two switches.
 It's more complex to configure but provides more options.
 Now from a big picture point of view Chassis Aggregation is the same as switch
stacking. Multiple switches act as one switch which gives you both availability and
design advantages. However, one of the big reasons for Chassis based aggregation
is high availability designs.
 ->Technology such as Cisco, Virtual Switching System or VSS is supported on the
Cisco 6500 and 6800 series switches.
 Have a look and Cisco's Web site for more details. But here is a quick overview.
 Now even if you're not using Chassis Aggregation, you need high availability in the
core and distribution layer of your network.
 ->As discussed one of the reasons for having multiple switches in the distribution or
Core layer, is to provide redundancy in case one of those switches goes down. So, we
use technology such as HSRP, Spanning Tree and others to provide better
redundancy and better scalability.
 However, the downside is cost, you need additional switches and it's also more
complex to configure. You need to think about where you put your Spanning Tree
roots as well as your HSRP active routers
 ->Now Chassis based switch typically has multiple line Cards.
 one or more supervised modules and
 one or more power supplies.
 for redundancy you want redundant power supplies, you want redundant
supervisors and you want a multiple line cards in your chassis.
 The idea with supervisor modules is if one of the supervisors goes down the other
one can take over the management of the switch.

 A supervisor a module essentially the brain for the Chassis based switch. If you lose
your supervisor the switch will have no brain. Hence you have redundant supervisor
modules in your switch.
 ->You have redundant power supplies in case there's a problem with one of the
power supplies. And in addition, you'll have multiple connections from your access
layer to multiple line cards using linked aggregation, to ensure that if one of the line
cards goes down the network can continue functioning using the redundant line
card.
 Now with Chassis based aggregation. what we're doing, is taking multiple
chassis-based switches and using either a layer 2, a layer 3 EtherChannel,
 between multiple Chassis based switches to provide better redundancy and
better throughput at the distribution core of the network.
 I've discussed that in a lot of detail in the campus videos that make up of
course
 ->what we can do is take that a step further and instead of using linked aggregation
between the chassis base switches with Spanning Tree and HSRP.
 we make the Chassis based switches appear to be a single switch.
 In the model on the left, the two switches are independent of one another. They run
their own Mac address tables. They run the own instance of the Spanning Tree.
 They essentially act totally independently of one another.
 You configure two separate switches in this example and you configure them
independently of each other.
 With an Aggregated Chassis environment However, the switches appear to be one
switch to the rest of the network.
 You can have multiple physical ports going to different physical switches, but you
can aggregate them together using Multi-Chassis EtherChannel. Because logically A1
has two physical connections to the same switch even though physically, its two
physical connections to different switches.
 and the different ways to implement this. We can use Multi-Chassis EtherChannel.
but use an active/standby control plane, where one of the pairs acts as the switch
for the control plane protocols. So, one of the switches is in control of Spanning
Tree, VTP, EtherChannel, ARP and Routing protocols.
 But to take advantage of the fording power of the supervisor modules on both
switches. we have active/active data planes.
 Where layer 2 forwarding and Layer 3 forwarding is done by both switches.
 The switches synchronize their mac address tables and routing tables to
support this.
 ->there's a single switch management plan however. In other words, you manage
both switches on the active switch. when you change the config of the active switch
that configuration is synchronized automatically with the standby switch.
 ->Now you could take us a step further where you have an Aggregated Virtual
Switch and an Aggregated Access Switch.
 Physically We've got two switches in the distribution layer, but by using Chassis
aggregation they appear to be one switch.
 at the Access Layer we have four physical switches, but they appear to be a single
virtual switch
 and then we can run a physical ports in a single EtherChannel between the
distribution layer and access layer. And in that case we don't need Spanning Tree.
Because even though physically we have six switches, virtually we only have two
switches with one virtual cable between them.
 As always there are caveats and things to be aware of when doing this. But that's the
ultimate vision of a linked aggregation with Chassis aggregation and switch stacking.
You're aggregating your physical distribution switches into one virtual switch and
you're stacking your access layer switches into one virtual switch.
 This simplifies the network because you don't have to worry about optimizing
spanning tree and optimizing HSRP
 There's no need for HSRP because we have one virtual aggregates switch, we would
still run Spanning tree in case there are problems. But from a Spanning Tree point of
view both of these ports are forwarding because there's only one logical cable
between the two switches.
 It really simplifies the management and configuration of a campus network.
 ->So in summary stacking technologies and chassis aggregation technologies allow
you to simplify the management and configuration as well as the forwarding of
traffic in an Ethernet network.