Do any UniFi switches support stacking (I just have their cheaper consumer models, so I know they don’t)? I’m curious to know for if/when I upgrade.
A quick search only came up with one Reddit post where someone said “no”, but that was the only mention of UniFi switches & stacking.
· [7 mo. ago] by chris-itg
I don’t know what differences there are in terms of advanced features, but OP said he will be using switches from the Pro line, not the Enterprise line.
No, none of the Ubiquiti switches (Edge, UISP, Unifi) support stacking, nor do they support MLAG (multi-chassis lag, also called VCP by Cisco or VLT by Dell)
That’s what figured might be the case, judging by the lack of info from my (brief) search.
MLAG, form what I understand is only really used in datacentres, which is not Ubiquiti’s target audiance.
So I understand not supporting MLAG, but it’s a shame (and disappointing) no Ubiquiti lines support stacking.
Thank you for confirming.
Stacking switches requires a switch architecture designed for it, as well as robust software support. When you make a stack, the switching fabrics of all the stack members combine, with one taking the master roll. The stack master is the only one that keeps the formal FDB (layer 2 MAC address list) and it sends updates to the others. Any management functions are also handled by the stack master. Special care must also be taken such that the stack connections, which normally form a physical loop, do not allow any traffic to traverse the loop, and that this stack connection functions separately from STP and any related functions such as loop detection. The ability of the stack to perform LACP across multiple members is an example of something that requires more care then in a single-switch situation, because the local stack member needs to act as a proxy for the stack master. LACP on a stack is frankly almost the same as MLAG in a datacenter (instead of a stack connection, you have a VPC/VLT/whatever peering connection, but its the same complexity).
When you sign an NDA with Broadcom for using their switch chips, they’ll give you starting code for making stacks. I can tell from using them that Brocade/Ruckus and Dell are both using more-or-less the same underlying code from Broadcom (Ruckus ICX7xxx switches, Dell N2xxx/3xxx switches). Ubiquiti should be able to do the same. The USW-Pro lineup uses the same switch chip family as the Ruckus ICX7150 which has stacking (bcm56160) so they totally can do it. I believe the USW-Pro-48 might even already use two of the bcm56160 internally, which is basically a permanent stack.
Wow that’s detailed. Are you an engineer by any chance?
I may have the title of “Lead Network Engineer” at a Fortune 500 company.
Nice. That explains it.
I’m just an electrician who’s a computer enthusiast. lol