Cisco^® FlexStack and FlexStack-Plus stacking for Cisco Catalyst^® 2960-S, 2960-X and 2960-XR Series Switches provides a true stacking solution, with all switches in a FlexStack or FlexStack-Plus stack acting as a single switching unit. FlexStack and FlexStack-Plus provide a unified data plane and single configuration for a group of stacked Cisco Catalyst 2960-S, 2960-X, and 2960-XR switches.

FlexStack and FlexStack-Plus lower the total cost of ownership with built-in 1:N redundancy, high availability, and preprovisioning, not available in standalone switches. High-availability features such as EtherChannel and FlexLinks will work across stack members, increasing uptime and network connectivity.

FlexStack-Plus is based on FlexStack. FlexStack was introduced on the 2960-S in 2010. FlexStack-Plus is being introduced in 2013 with the 2960-X and 2960-XR models of Cisco Catalyst Ethernet switches.

FlexStack-Plus is an improvement over FlexStack because it doubles the speed of the stack bandwidth and allows for more members to join the stack. The FlexStack-Plus bandwidth for a single stack member is 40Gbps compared to 20Gbps with FlexStack. With multiple stack members, the FlexStack-Plus bandwidth is 80Gbps, and the FlexStack bandwidth is 40Gpbs. With FlexStack-Plus technology, eight 2960-X or XR members can be joined into a single stack. With FlexStack only four 2960-S members could be joined into a single stack.

FlexStack-Plus is backward compatible with 2960-S and FlexStack. Mixing 2960-X and 2960-S members in a stack is supported. When the stack membership is mixed with 2960-X and 2960-S models, FlexStack-Plus falls back to FlexStack capabilities of 40Gbps stack bandwidth and four members maximum per stack.

Why Stack Ethernet Switches?

Stacking Ethernet switches reduces the network administrator’s total cost of ownership. The cost of maintaining the network is decreased because there are fewer devices to manage, and the network uptime is increased with built-in redundancy.