Cisco FlexStack-Plus provides stacking of up to eight Cisco Catalyst 2960-X or 2960-XR Series Switches with the optional FlexStack-Plus module (Figure 5).
The FlexStack-Plus module is hot swappable and can be added to any Cisco Catalyst 2960-X or 2960-XR Series Switch with a FlexStack-Plus slot. Switches connected to a stack will automatically upgrade to the stack’s Cisco IOS Software version and transparently join the stack without additional intervention.
To provide investment protection, FlexStack-Plus is backward compatible with FlexStack. Cisco Catalyst 2960-X LAN Base switches equipped with a FlexStack-Plus module can be stacked with Cisco Catalyst 2960-S and 2960-SF LAN Base switches equipped with a FlexStack module (see Table 6). Table 7 lists the scalability and performance of FlexStack with the various software images.
FlexStack and FlexStack-Plus supported combinations
Stack member
|
2960-XR IP Lite
|
2960-X LAN Base
|
2960-S/SF LAN Base
|
2960-XR IP Lite
|
Yes
|
–
|
–
|
2960-X LAN Base
|
–
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
2960-S or 2960-SF LAN Base
|
–
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
FlexStack-Plus scalability and performance
Stack member
|
Stack bandwidth
|
Stack limit
|
Cisco IOS feature set
|
2960-XR IP Lite
|
80 Gbps
|
8
|
IP Lite
|
2960-X LAN Base
|
80 Gbps
|
8
|
LAN Base
|
2960-X LAN Base mixed with 2960-S/SF LAN Base
|
40 Gbps
|
4
|
LAN Base
|
Cisco FlexStack-Plus switch stack