Allied Telesis AT-S60 - Manual (Page 46)

Chapter 3: Basic Switch Parameters
Section I: Basic Features 46
Assigning an IP Address to a Switch
When building or expanding your network, you need to decide which
managed switches need an unique IP addresses. The rule used to be that
a managed switch needed a IP address if you wanted to manage it
remotely, such as with the Telnet application protocol. However, if a
network contained a lot of managed switches, assigning each one an IP
address was often cumbersome and time consuming. Also, it was often
difficult keeping track of all the IP addresses.
The enhanced stacking feature of the AT-8400 switch simplifies when to
assign an IP address. With enhanced stacking, you need assign an IP
address to only one AT-8400 or other Allied Telesyn switch that supports
enhanced stacking, for each subnet in your network. The switch with the
IP address is referred to as the Master switch of the subnetwork. All
switches in the same subnet share the IP address.
Starting a local or remote management session on the Master switch
automatically gives you complete management access to all the other
switches in the same subnet.
This feature has two primary benefits. First, it helps reduce the number
of IP addresses you have to assign to your network devices. Second, it
allows you to configure multiple switches through the same local or
remote management session.
If your network consists of multiple subnets, you must assign a unique IP
address to at least one switch in each subnet. The switch with the IP
address is the Master switch of that subnet.
Note
For further information on enhanced stacking, refer to Enhanced
Stacking Overview on page 76.
When you assign a switch an IP address, you must also assign it a subnet
mask. The switch uses the subnet mask to determine which portion of an
IP address represents the network address and which portion represents
the node address.
You must also assign the switch a gateway address if there is a router
between the switch and the remote management workstation. This
gateway address is the IP address of the router through which the switch
and management station communicates.
If you do not plan to remotely manage any of the AT-8400 switches in
your network, then you do not need to assign an IP address to any of
them. The switches operate fine without an IP address and you are still
able to manage them completely using the local management interface.