Trunking between 2 switch stacks (M4300-52G-PoE+ stack & M5300-52G-PoE+ stack)

[TedW]

I'm not a networking expert, so I wanted to toss this question out there to see if someone could point me in the right direction.

I have (2) seperate network stacks in 2 seperate builtings connected by a SFP+ fiber trunk connection on ports 1/0/51 on both stacks.  I'd like to connect a second SFP+ fiber/trunk connection between both stacks on port 3/0/51 to increase redundancy, but Im not sure exactly how to do it without creating a LOOP situation.  I've never done any kind of LAG configuration, but everything I read tends to point me in that direction.  I found a post discussing how to configure a LAG ( https://community.netgear.com/t5/Managed-Switches/sfp-trunking/m-p/1061504# )and the person posting referensed a document titled how_to_configure_lag.pdf, but that seemed to confuse me even more, since the browser GUI in that document looks nothing like the browser GUI on my M4300 and M5300.

The article also mentioned needing to configure STP on each stack to prevent a LOOP,  but I cant seem to find any documentation that can better educate me on how to do this.

If anyone out there has any links or insight they can provide me when it comes to combining 2 SFP+ ports into a LAG and then trunking to another switch that also has 2 SFP+ ports combined into a LAG it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

TedW

[Hopchen · Accepted solution]

Hi,

You would need to create a LAG in order to run multiple cables between two switches.

I would suggest that you use an LACP LAG (i.e. Enable Dynamic Mode on the LAG). It is luckily easy to create 🙂

Here is the documentation that you are looking for. The doc is for an older model, so the colours in the UI are different but the menus are the same.
https://kb.netgear.com/21636/How-do-I-add-ports-to-the-Link-Aggregation-Groups-LAGs-using-the-web-in...

You should also enable STP mode on the LAG. That is simply so that STP messages can travel across the LAG - not because the LAG itself creates a loop.

I hope that makes sense.

Cheers

[Hopchen · Accepted solution]

Hi,

You would need to create a LAG in order to run multiple cables between two switches.

I would suggest that you use an LACP LAG (i.e. Enable Dynamic Mode on the LAG). It is luckily easy to create 🙂

Here is the documentation that you are looking for. The doc is for an older model, so the colours in the UI are different but the menus are the same.
https://kb.netgear.com/21636/How-do-I-add-ports-to-the-Link-Aggregation-Groups-LAGs-using-the-web-in...

You should also enable STP mode on the LAG. That is simply so that STP messages can travel across the LAG - not because the LAG itself creates a loop.

I hope that makes sense.

Cheers