I have a following Cisco StackWise setup:


As you can see, switch 1 is selected as a stack master. Is there a service interruption if I do:



..which sets the priority of the first switch lower than the second one? In addition, when does the stack-master election occur? According to Cisco documentation, it is a part of the bootup process, but is there a way to manually force stack-master election once I have changed the priority?

You won't notice a thing by changing the priorities on the switches. You'll have to lose connectivity to switch 1 to change the master.

Reload switch 1 and 2 will become the master. That's if all the configuration is right between switch 2 and 3.

So the master election takes place only during the reboot? In other words those commands:



..take affect only in case the current stack master is reloaded?

Correct.

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som om sinnet hade svartnat för evigt.

Or when two masters become connected.

higher priority is better, so the one you always want to boot master should be priority 15,

What is the best practise regarding master selection? I mean should one keep a switch in the stack with manual priority 15 so it's always sure that this particular switch will become the master one?

In addition, how do you upgrade software in stack? The first idea I have in case of a stack with three switches is to copy IOS image to a flash memory of each switch, force boot from the new image and finally quickly reload stack members and finally stack master:



What do you think?

You should use the archive command to upgrade the software on the stack, and you will need to reload the whole stack at the same time to make it work correctly.

On the other hand, if one don't want to have HTTP server files in the switch, it would be more convenient to go with the traditional upgrading methods. Following should work:



Am I correct, that releoad in a switch stack reloads the stack-master as well as stack-members?

There are command switches to the archive command that can install the image only, with no http files. It can also reload the stack when all the switches have the image loaded. Really, use the archive command. It does everything you need in one command.

And yes, a singular 'reload' command would reload the whole stack, master and all.

1KrazyFool, thanks!

If I connect STACK1 port on switch1 to STACK1 port on switch2 and STACK2 port on switch1 to STACK2 on switch2 like this:



..then according to "sh switch neighbors" output I have made crossed connection:



Why is it so? Or am I correct that this does not matter if one connects stack-cables in crossed formation or straight?

//looks like it is the switch number under ports, not the port numbers


In addition, am I correct that if the StackWise ring is broken(both stack cables are removed) and then one reconnects StackWise cable(s), then all the reconnected switches will reload in order to become stack members?