Allied Telesis 8100S Series - Manual (Page 45)

Stand-alone Switch Installation Guide for 8100L and 8100S Series Switches
45
Stacking Ports
The 8100S Series switches may be used as stand-alone units or as part of
a virtual stack in which the units are interconnected via the stacking ports
on the front panels. Compared to stand-alone switches, which function as
independent units, the switches of a virtual stack synchronize their actions
to form a single, logical unit so that the switching operations, like spanning
tree protocols, virtual LANs, and static port trunks, are able to span across
all of the units and ports.
The two principal advantages of stacks are:
 You can manage multiple units simultaneously, which can simplify
network management.
 You have more flexibility in how you configure some of the
features. For instance, a static port trunk on a stand-alone switch
has to consist of ports from the same switch. In contrast, a static
trunk on a stack may consist of ports from different switches in the
same stack.
For instructions on how to install a virtual stack of 8100S Series switches,
refer to the Stack Installation Guide for the 8100S Series Switches.
Note
The 8100L Series switches do not support stacking.