Cisco Cisco VN 2900 Network Adaptation Interface Installation Guide

Stacking is the connection of two Ethernet switch HWICs resident in the same chassis so that they 
behave as a single switch. Stacking is accomplished by daisy-chaining the two cards together with an 
external RJ-45 crossover cable that is connected to the specified stacking port on each switch. 

When a chassis is populated with two Ethernet switch HWICs, the user must configure the cards to 
operate in stacked mode.

There is no option to unstack two Ethernet switch HWICs. When two Ethernet switch HWICs are in the 
same chassis, they can operate only in stacked mode. If you configure the cards to operate unstacked, 
they will not operate correctly.

You must designate one port on each switch to be the stacking port. On the HWIC-4ESW card, this port 
is nominally the first port (port 0), although any port can be chosen. On the HWIC-D-9ESW card, this 
port is nominally the ninth port (port 8), although any port can be chosen. We recommend the use of port 
8 as the stacking port, because it has been designed as an extra port on the HWIC-D-9ESW card and does 
not provide inline power.

Only one port on an Ethernet switch HWIC can be configured as a stacking port.

All combinations of Ethernet switch HWICs may be stacked: two HWIC-D-9ESW cards, an 
HWIC-D-9ESW card with an HWIC-4ESW card, or two HWIC-4ESW cards.

See the Configuration Guidelines for HWIC-4ESW and HWIC-D-9ESW Interface Cards document for 
information on how to configure stacking ports.

Related documentation is available on Cisco.com or on the Product Documentation DVD. For more 
information, see the 

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Cisco IOS Release 12.3(8)T4 feature module