1. Cisco StackPower: Efficient Use of Power
The Cisco StackPower technology is an innovative feature that aggregates all of the available
power in a stack of switches and manages it as one common power pool for the entire stack. It is
one of the main features introduced in the Cisco Catalyst 3750-X Series Switches (Figure1).i
Figure1: Cisco StackPower
This document explains how Cisco StackPower manages power more efficiently, allowing
customers to achieve more granular control of their power use in their Cisco Catalyst switches.
This Whitepaper covers the following topics:
Benefits of Cisco StackPower
Technology Overview
Use Case for Cisco StackPower
Intelligent Power Management
Cisco StackPower Topology
Modes of Operation
Intelligent Load Shedding
Best Practices
Benefits of Cisco StackPower:
The benefits of the Cisco StackPower technology are immediately tangible.
Consider a stack of switches with each switch requiring a slightly higher power budget for some
extra Power over Ethernet (PoE) devices randomly scattered in the stack. Purchasing extra second
power supply for each switch that needs some additional power would be inefficient and
expensive. With the Cisco StackPower solution, a common pool of power is made available and
additional power can be automatically redirected to the appropriate switch based on the
available power budget in the common power pool.
Cisco StackPower technology immediately produces savings by reducing the number of power
supplies required per switch and the number of outlets required in the wiring closet. Additional
savings accrue from minimizing energy wastage due to inefficiency of power supply operation at

2. lower loads and reduction in cooling requirements in the wiring closet. Cisco StackPower also
eliminates the need for external power shelves, thus freeing up additional space and power
outlets in the wiring closet.
Cisco StackPower also allows the deployment of larger power pools by using an eXpandable
Power System (XPS 2200). This system allows for a star topology which shares power with up to 9
switches. See Cisco StackPower Topology section.
Note: The XPS 2200 eXtended Power Supply for the Cisco Catalyst 3750-Xwill not
be available until December 2010. Until that time, Power Stacking can be done
with ring topology and a maximum of four Catalyst 3750-X switches.
Cisco StackPower technology provides the following additional benefits
Abstracts the location of a power supply from its physical location in a stack of switches,
allowing for better utilization of available power capacity
Maximizes the efficiency of power supplies-aggregated loads allow power supplies to
operate at optimum efficiency, considerably reducing power supply wastage over time
Provides or complements the power required for PoE+ to any port in a stack
Enables a scalable PoE+ infrastructure
Offers a pay-as-you-grow architecture, similar to the Cisco StackWise® technology
Offers improved reliability, availability, and efficiency via the eXpandable Power System
(XPS) to up to nine switches
Enables a "zero-footprint" redundant power system (RPS)
Offers greater redundancy, 1+N vs. 1:N redundancy with RPS
Allows off-lining of power supplies when extra capacity is available in the system
Helps achieve a higher mean time between failures (MTBF) due to improved efficiency
Lowers TCO by reducing the number of power supplies needed, the number of devices in
the rack, the amount of heat in the wiring closet, and the number of AC outlets required
in the wiring closet
Technology Overview
The key aspect to the new Cisco StackPower technology is the way power is supplied and
distributed to a switch in the stack. A switch requires power to be provided at different voltage
levels, and a traditional power supply provides those voltages. These requirements make the
power supply more complex, and this complexity affects efficiency.
Cisco StackPower technology implies a new approach to power supply design and power
distribution in a switch, but its effects are most significant in a stack of switches.
The Cisco Catalyst 3750-X and 3560-X Series Switches are designed for power supplies that
provide a single power voltage. This approach simplifies the power supply design and allows
aggregation of power, from power supplies in a single switch and across switches in a power stack.
Cisco StackPower technology creates a pool of power that shares a common load consisting of all

3. the switches in the power stack. This capability to manage power as share resource is unique to a
stack of switches that can operate as a single unit. Therefore StackPower technology is available
only on the Catalyst 3750-X switches.
Note that all power available in the power stack is combined into one single large pool of power,
and the stack becomes a large single load to the power pool (Figure2).i
Figure2: Cisco StackPower: One Power Pool, One Load
A surplus of power in a power stack enables features such as Zero-Footprint RPS and 1+N
redundancy instead of the classic 1:N redundancy with dedicated external RPS.
Redundancy with Cisco StackPower is better because the redundant power is already inline (1+N),
as opposed to being switched from one source to another, as in a classic RPS (1:N). The 1+N)
redundancies are less susceptible to problems because the power is already available inline.
StackPower operations
Switches deployed in a power stack discover each other and exchange messages to figure out
how much power is available in the stack (power budget), to set priorities (or use default priority
values), and to start booting Cisco IOS Software on all switches, depending upon the power
budget available in the stack.
The boot-up sequence of events is as follows
1. Switches are interconnected in a ring topology and power is applied.

4. 2. All switches power up their Stack Power’s logic (MCU) (42W each).
3. All switches participate in the power stack, exchange discovery packets, information
messages regarding power resources and priorities.
4. The total budget in the power stack is discovered.
5. The power stack reserves 42W in case a new member is dynamically added to the stack.
This amount is reserved once per stack, not per switch (unless there is only one switch in
the stack).
6. Budgets are distributed based on total power budget, power draw requirements, and
switch priorities.
7. Switches that receive an allocation of power proceed to boot the Cisco IOS Software.
8. Switches that did not receive a power allocation will remain in the power stack without
booting until more power is added to the power budget.
Cisco Catalyst 3750-X and 3560-X Series Switches do not consume more power than the rest of
the Catalyst 3750 family of switches, but the power budget required is higher. This higher budget
allows each switch to budget enough power for the switch itself, to power a high power network
module (if present), and to power its downstream neighbor’s StackPower logic (MCU), which is
the minimum number of components in a switch to form a power stack without booting Cisco
IOS Software.
Adding a new switch to a power stack
Cisco StackPower technology adds resiliency to the stack by reserving 42W of power, which is
enough to bring up the MCU of any Catalyst3750-X Series switch. This helps ensure that if and
when a new switch without any power supplies is added to the power stack and does not have
any power, it can join the power stack using the power that has been reserved for that purpose.
This guarantees the inclusion of a new switch in the power stack; if the power stack has enough
power in the power pool, Cisco StackPower will allocate power to the new switch to boot Cisco
IOS Software.
Zero-Footprint RPS
The ability to provide redundancy without the need for an actual RPS is called Zero-Footprint RPS.
The power stack discovers the members of the stack, aggregates power from all available sources
in the stack, and subtracts from the power pool an amount of power equal to the largest power
supply in the stack. It does not subtract the power supply itself nor it turn off any power supply.
In the simplest example, a power stack is formed by using a special cable to connect switches to
each other to form a closed ring, similar to the topology for a Cisco StackWise stack (Figure3). Up
to four switches can be part of a power stack in a ring topology, and up to nine switches can
share power in a star topology by using an eXpandable Power System (XPS) (Figure4). Current
flows through the cables that form the power stack and feed switches in need of power or
complements power requirements of other switches in the stack. It is a safe system with plenty
of circuit breakers spread around the printed circuit board to cut off current to different
components in the system or if needed, to the system itself.

5. Figure3: Ring Topology
Figure4:Star Topology, Using an XPS
The Cisco StackPower cables are thick but flexible, and they carry power as well as a data signal
to provide a communications channel among the switches in the power stack. Table1 shows Cisco
StackPower and XPS Cables.
Table1: Cisco StackPower and XPS Cables
Product ID Description

6. CAB-SPWR-30CM 30cm StackPower cable (Figure6a)
CAB-SPWR-150CM 150cm StackPower cable (Figure6a)
CAB-XPS-58CM 58cm XPS cable (Figure6b)
CAB-XPS-150CM 150cm XPS cable (Figure6b)
StackPower and XPS cables are keyed and have colored bands on the ends to help identify which
cable is connected. The Cisco Catalyst 3750-X interface also has colors to ensure the proper cable
is connected (see Figure5). Since a StackPower cable can only be connected to a 3750-X, the
cable has a green band on one cable end and yellow on the other (see Figure6a). The cable with a
Blue/Green band on one end and a red band on the other connects from the 3750-X to an XPS
(see Figure6b). The Blue/Green c750-X and the Red cable end connects to the XPS.
Figure5: Color Coded Cables
Figure 6a: Use StackPower Cablesbetwen Cisco Catalyst 3750-X Switches
Figure 6b: Use between a Cisco Catalyst 3750-X and a XPS-2200

7. The following are some important concepts for Cisco StackPower technology
The Cisco StackPower feature is responsible for the negotiation and distribution of
power from a common power pool among the switches participating in the power stack.
The intelligent load shed is a mechanism used by Cisco StackPower to decide what
devices must power down when the available power drops below the allocated power
levels. A priority scheme is used to set different levels which become useful when:
– Load shedding in case the power budget falls below the allocated power levels
– Initial allocation of power to boot up into Cisco IOS Software
Priorities for powered devices and switches can be changed to values other than the
pre-configured default values.
Physical placement of power supplies in a switch is independent of the power required
for that switch.
A switch may not be allowed to boot up with Cisco IOS Software if all available power in
the common pool has been already allocated. But this switch continues to participate in
the power stack while waiting for more power to become available to allow it to boot.
The power stack reports all of the Cisco StackPower information to the stack master;
therefore, configuring a power stack that spans multiple data stacks is not recommended
(see the "Best Practices" section).
Use Case for the Cisco StackPower
The Power Stack switches in Figure7 will help you understand the Cisco StackPower technology
and its main features.
Figure 7: Power Stack of Four Switches

8. Switches A, B, C, and D have the following configuration and power draw requirements
Switch A requires 946W to provide full PoE on all of its 48 ports. It has only one 1100W
power supply; extra power capacity of 154W is available.
Switch B requires 206W, since it is a non-PoE switch. It has only one 350W power supply;
extra power capacity of 144W is available.
Switch C requires 1646W to provide 1440W of full PoE+ on all 48 ports. It has one 1100W
and one 715W power supply; extra power capacity of 169W is available.
Switch D requires 576W to provide partial PoE on some ports. This switch does not have
any power supply, requires 576W of power.
These switches have been cabled up to form a power stack in order to make use of unused power
from switches with lower power requirements. This is the key benefit of Cisco StackPower
technology, flexible use of available resources.
Let's summarize the scenario
Power requirements for the power stack
Switches A - D = 946W+206W + 1646W+ 576W =3374W
Available power in the common pool of power stack
Switches A - D= 1100W+ 350W+1100W+715W = 3265W
Deficit power = -109W
Although the power stack in the example has extra capacity that gets in the power pool, it is not
sufficient to power the switch D and PoE devices attached to it. To get the system in balance and
to have a positive power budget, we must add more power to the stack; a 350W power supply
will solve the problem but it must be installed in slot A of switch D (see the "BestPractices"
section). With the addition of a 350W power supply we can make the power budget positive and
have additional 241W left over in case more power is required by switch B or switch D.

9. Cisco StackPower technology provides us the ability to share and redirect surplus power from
switch C to switch D, which does not have any power supply. Note that switch D even boots up
without a power supply, since the StackPower allocates and directs power to it.
Cisco StackPower also has the ability to provide redundancy without the extra rack-unit in the
rack. By adding one 1100W power supply to any of the open slots in the power stack, you can
configure reserved power to be used in case of the failure of any power supply in the stack. This
feature is called Zero-Footprint RPS.
Displaying Cisco StackPower Information
The Cisco IOS Software command-line interface (CLI) can be used to view Cisco StackPower
details in terms of configured mode, StackPower port status, neighbor information, and power
requirements as well as default and configured priorities.
"show stack-power"
Power stack name: Powerstack-1
Stack mode: Power sharing strict
Switch 1:
Power budget: 1646
Low port priority value: 27
High port priority value: 26
Switch priority value: 4
Port 1 status: Not shut
Port 2 status: Not shut
Neighbor on port 1: 0022.bdcf.9200
Neighbor on port 2: 0000.0000.0000
Switch 2:
Power budget: 206
Low port priority value: 19
High port priority value: 18
Switch priority value: 3
Port 1 status: Not shut
Port 2 status: Not shut
Neighbor on port 1: 0000.0000.0000
Neighbor on port 2: 0022.bdd0.6680
The "show env" command can complement the information to obtain the available power
sources in the stack. Notice in the output in Table3 below, switch 1 only has one 1100W power
supply and switch 2 has one 1100W in slot A and one 715W in slot B.
Table3: show env power all
Switch Product ID Serial # Status Sys Pwr
POE
Pwr
Watts
1A NG3K-PWR-1100WAC LIT133707T OK Good Good 1100/0

10. 1B No Input
Power
Bad N/A 235/0
2A NG3K-PWR-1100WAC LIT13370579 OK Good Good 1100/0
2B NG3K-PWR-715WAC LIT133705CC OK Good Good 715/0
Intelligent Power Management
Placing all of the available power in a single pool has advantages: a load (the switches in the
power stack and their respective power-able devices) is applied to the pooled power, making an
efficient use of the power resources of the stack. An administrator may conclude that there is too
much power available in one stack and may decide to take a power supply offline or pull it out
and deploy it somewhere else.
A traditional power supply reaches around 80 percent efficiency when the applied load reaches
around 60 percent and tops out at a load of perhaps 80 percent; therefore, to make the best
possible use of power, it is a good idea to apply all of the load to a single power supply to reach
higher efficiency more quickly before powering up a second power supply and so
on. Figure8 shows the efficiency curve of three switches compared to the efficiency curve of one
switch with an optimal load.
Figure8: Efficiency Curves
These efficiency curves belong to three different switches, each drawing different loads from
their power supply and none of them reaching 60 percent load, which increases the amount of
energy wasted.

11. A more energy-efficient scenario could involve the same three switches drawing power from the
same source, as in a power stack. Three switches have a higher chance to reach the optimal load
on the power supply, so the maximum efficiency can be reached sooner, translating into energy
savings and more intelligent use of power. Note that Cisco IOS Software has the knobs to take a
power supply offline and place it back online as required, and the Cisco StackPower feature has
the instrumentation to provide the information needed to take an action, but off-lining a power
supply requires administrator intervention.
A maximum of 8400W is possible in a pool of power in a stack of four switches loaded with two
1100W power supplies each. Obviously, it is excessive; even if the stack consists of four Catalysts
3750-X-48P switches requiring full PoE+. Let's do the math:
4 switches x 48 ports x 30W = 5760W: a lot less than the available 8400W
If only one power supply is installed in each switch, we get 4200W in the power pool. Now we fall
short, but the reality is that not everyone needs full PoE+ on every port in a stack of four switches;
hence, 4200W may be just fine. Here is where the Cisco StackPower feature starts to provide
savings by allowing the administrator to purchase power supplies as the need for power grows.
Cisco StackPower Topology
The Cisco StackPower technology can be deployed in a ring topology as well as in a star topology
over an XPS, as shown earlier in Figures 4 and 5. Both topologies have advantages; a ring
topology provides greater resiliency, since current can flow in either direction in the ring in case
of a path failure. On the other hand, the number of switches sharing power is restricted to four.
To ensure safety and prevent large currents through the cables, the number of switches in a
power stack is limited to four; some deployment scenarios create large currents that would
require a larger gauge wire in the StackPower cables which reduces the manageability of the
cables. Nonetheless, a stack of four is a common deployment.
In a star topology, there is no such restriction; all nine switches can share power through the XPS,
although one more piece of hardware is installed in the rack among the switches.
eXpandable Power System (XPS 2200)
The XPS 2200 is the next-generation power redundant system, providing redundancy for up to
nine Cisco Catalyst 3560-X Series Switches as well as Cisco StackPower capability to up to nine
Catalyst 3750-X switches.
Modes of Operation
Cisco StackPower technology has three modes of operation, which offer new capabilities as well
as the classical RPS functionality without the RPS device. The three modes of operation are:
Power-sharing mode, strict and non-strict (loose)
Redundant mode, strict and non-strict (loose)
RPS mode (requires an XPS 2200)
Power-Sharing Mode (Non-strict or loose)

12. The default configuration is power-sharing mode non-strict, but you have the option of
configuring strict mode, which would keep you from creating a negative power budget. The same
is true for redundant mode.
Power sharing mode is the core of StackPower and is the simplest (Figure9). The power gets
allocated from the power pool as power requests come in from the switches and PoE devices (IP
phones, wireless access points, and so on). The power stack keeps track of the power budget and
allocated power count and continues to allocate new power until the power budget is completely
depleted. By default, this mode does not have any restrictions and will allocate all the power
available in the power budget.
Figure9: Power Share Mode
In the following scenario, the Cisco StackPower technology aggregates three power supplies on
four switches (1100W + 1100W + 1100W + 0W = 3300W). The load requirement is 500W per
switch (500W + 500W + 500W + 500W = 2000).
Figure10: Power sharing among 4 Switches

13. Power budget = 3300W
Allocated power = 2000W
Available unallocated power = 1300W
Should power requirements increase in any of the switches of the power stack, the Cisco
StackPower feature can redirect power from the unallocated power pool to any port in any switch
in the stack; power can be drawn from the unallocated pool until it is completely depleted. Once
the power budget is depleted, all power requests will be denied.
Notice that not all switches have a power supply. StackPower is capable of sharing power even
with switches that don't have a power supply.
Power Share "Strict" Mode
The power sharing mode has an inherent capability to oversubscribe itself in case of power
supply failures. That is, when an imbalance occurs between available power budgets and
allocated power, more power is allocated than is available. By definition, the system should never
have a negative power budget, but it is possible that a power supply failure brings the power
budget below the allocated power. Such a condition will trigger a series of alarming messages to
the console.
Negative budget = Available power < Allocated power
The problem is that a demand for previously allocated (negotiated) power may come at any
moment, and there may not be enough power available to respond to the previously committed
resource.
Cisco StackPower technology has a "strict" mode to keep you from getting into that situation.
This mode forces the power stack to stay in a positive budget; that is, when a power supply
failure causes this condition, the power stack begins shedding power according to preset priority
levels until the available power is equal to the allocated power.
Redundant Mode
Redundant mode (Figure11) reserves an amount of power for redundancy from the power pool
and guarantee operations in case of a single power supply failure in the power stack. The

14. reserved power is equal to the size of the largest power supply in the stack. The rest of the power
in the power pool is used as in Power-sharing mode and the strict and non-strict modes work
exactly the same as in power-sharing modes.
Figure11: Redundant mode
The largest power supply in the stack is not reserved; instead an amount of power equal to the
capacity of the largest power supply in the stack is set aside as reserved power. In case of a
power supply failure, the entire power reserve is made available to the budget, ready to be
allocated. Note that regardless of which type or size of power supply has failed, the reserved
power is used as a whole amount and cannot be fragmented.
It is important to note that the Cisco StackPower feature will not take any power supply offline
automatically based on the power budget report. That is, a power stack could have a surplus of
power capacity and redundancy configured, but it would not offline any power supply from the
system. This action needs to be performed by an administrator of the power stack.
The following scenario is similar to the power-sharing mode in figure 9. The Cisco StackPower
technology aggregates three power supplies (1100W + 1100W + 1100W + 0W = 3300W). The
load requirement is 500W per switch (500W + 500W + 500W + 500W = 2000).
Figure11. Redundant power

15. Figure12: Power sharing among 4 Switches
Power budget is 3300W
Reserved power 1100W (equal to the size of the largest power supply in the stack)
Allocated power is 2000W
Available unallocated power is 200W
Should power requirements increase in any of the switches of the power stack, the Cisco
StackPower feature can redirect power from the unallocated power pool to any port in any switch
in the stack; power is drawn from the unallocated pool (200W) until it is completely depleted.
Once the power budget is depleted, all power requests will be denied.
If a power supply failure occurs, regardless of which size power supply, the entire amount of
reserved power is now available to the power budget. This is 1+N vs. traditional redundant power
systems 1: N with a dedicated external power system.
Advantage of this feature is that redundant power is already available online without any
switching required which reduces the chance for failures during power switching from internal
power supply to the external redundant system.
RPS Mode
RPS mode is supported only with the XPS. This is the traditional RPS-style support, where up to
nine switches are connected to the XPS but only two can be actively backed up by the XPS at any
one time. This is one-to-one backup: one power supply to one switch. This mode is not to be
confused with redundant mode, in which an amount of power is reserved from the overall
budget. RPS mode is the default and only mode for Cisco Catalyst 3560-X Series Switches.
Intelligent Load Shedding
Cisco StackPower feature enables intelligently managing not only a stack's power resources but
also power failures.

16. Load shedding is the process of shutting down devices in case of power supply, cable, or system
failures. For power stacks in power-sharing mode, there are two types of load-shedding:
immediate and graceful.
Immediate load-shedding occurs when a failure could cause the power stack to fail very quickly,
for example a massive power failure where multiple power supplies go offline for any reason and
the available power cannot sustain the system.
Graceful load-shedding can occur when a power supply fails and forces the power stack to
re-evaluate its power allocations. Switches and powered devices may shut down in order of their
default or configured priority, starting with devices with priority 27, until the power budget
matches the input power. Graceful load shedding is always enabled and immediate load shedding
occurs only when necessary.
What is a balanced power stack?
A balanced power stack is one that has a positive power budget; in other words, the available
power is equal to or greater than the allocated power.
Balanced power budget: Available power > Allocated power
When a power stack suffers a power supply failure, the available power budget drops, and if
"strict" power sharing mode has not been configured, the result is a negative power budget,
causing the system to become unbalanced.
Negative power budget: Available power < Allocated power
If the allocated power is not currently being consumed, nothing would happen other than IOS
messages on the console, but as soon as the allocated power is demanded by PoE devices, the
system will start a load-shedding process until the power budget is balanced again.
The design of the Cisco Catalyst 3750-X switches includes hardware to assign a priority to every
port in the switch. This hardware allows us to tag ports for high and low priorities, which are set
by default but can be programmed by the administrator. These priorities are used only when the
switch or the stack needs to shed power to bring the system back into balance. Cisco IOS
Software will generate plenty of console messages to inform the administrator about the
situation.
Priority Scheme
StackPower has a priority scheme that covers up to nine switches in a data stack and all of the
ports in the entire stack.
Priorities are set by default when the power stack gets created but you can configure the priority
of a switch or powered device to receive power (Figure13). This priority determines the order in
which devices are shut down in case of a power shortage i.e. graceful load-shedding. You can
configure three priorities per system: the system (or switch) priority, the priority of the

17. high-priority PoE ports on a switch, and the priority of the low-priority PoE ports on a switch.
Figure13: StackPower Default Priorities
The Catalyst 3750-X has the capability to create two groups of ports, High priority and Low
Priority (Figure13). High priority ports are those connected to more important or critical powered
devices and are preferred to retain inline PoE power in case of a power shortage. StackPower or
the administrator assigns a priority level to those groups of ports.
The table shows the default priorities used by StackPower that can be overwritten by an
administrator. As an example, a power stack can assign priority 2 to a switch-A, priority 10 to high
priority ports, and priority 20 to low priority ports. Each switch in the stack will have a different
priority set for the switch, high priority ports, and low priority ports respectively. The priority
levels are not repeated on any switch or port. That is switch-A with has priority level 10 for its
high priority ports and if load shedding is required, all other switches in the stack will have to
shed off their low priority ports (priority 19-27) and their high priority ports (priority
11-18) before switch-A has to shed off PoE power on its high priority ports because it has the
highest priority level (10) for high priority ports.
Figure14: Load shed sequence
IOS has the capability to monitor administrator priority settings to make sure that a high priority
port in Switch-A cannot have a lower priority level than a low priority port on another switch in

18. the stack.
As an administrator you can select any priority level for your switches and devices as long as you
keep the hierarchy of the switches, high priority ports, and low priority ports in such a way that a
high priority port will not shed off before a low priority port.
Best Practices
Cisco StackPower is an innovative technology that allows for a flexible and efficient use of the
power resources in a stack of switches; such an orchestration of hardware capabilities, resources,
and features require us to follow certain practices to insure proper and better use of this
technology.
Recommendations
1. Deploy power supplies in a balanced manner, that is, spread larger power supplies across
all switches in the stack or install larger power supplies on non-adjacent switches in the
stack.
2. Also, fill in slot A of all switches in the stack before installing a power supply in slot B of
any switch.
Power supply slots are named left to right, that is, power supply slot A in on the left and power
supply slot B is on the right (closest to the edge of the switch).
This practice allows the distribution of power sources across all switches in the stack. Otherwise,
a single failure in the power stack would cause larger power demands than what StackPower is
designed to handle. Any switch can only share up to 2000W of power to a neighbor, whether the
power is to be consumed by the neighbor or to be passed down to another switch in the stack.
Observe Figure15 and note that switches on the right side source 20A but consume 80A of power.
If a failure occurs on one of the connections between the right and left halves of the power stack,
large currents would be requested via the alternate path. Cisco StackPower is designed to share
up to 40A (2000W); this means that the system will start a load shed, which means an outage.
The outage will depend on the amount of power required.
Figure15: Unbalanced power stack

19. 3. Do not configure power stacks that span across data stacks.
Cisco StackPower is limited to four switches per power stack although one stack of nine switches
can be configured over multiple power stacks; this is a supported deployment. On the other hand,
one power stack can also span over multiple data stacks although it is not recommended. It is not
a recommended deployment because of display and control reasons. That is, StackPower reports
the power budget, priorities, neighbor information, and similar parameters to the stack master;
therefore having two stack masters would make management a nightmare. In this scenario, there
would be two masters receiving information about the same power stack, that would confuse the
administrator and would cause unexpected behavior in case of load sheds.
4.Configure strict modes and do not allow the power stack available power budget to go
negative.
Strict mode is not the default for neither power-sharing nor redundant modes; hence the
recommendation to configure strict mode to force the system shed loads as soon as the power
budget falls below the allocated power even if the power is not needed at that precise moment.
5. Recommendation for changing Cisco StackPower modes.
Changing Cisco StackPower modes is possible without reloading the power stack. There is no
need to reload neither the power stack nor any of its members; nonetheless caution must be
exercised when deciding to switch from power-sharing mode to redundant mode. The reason is
as follows: If the power budget is sufficient to sustain the power stack in power-sharing mode but
it does not have enough power to support the redundant mode which requires enough extra
power in the budget equal to the largest power supply in the power stack, it will cause a load
shed of PoE devices and even switches in the power stack.
The recommendation is to perform the calculation of required power in the power stack and add
the amount of reserved power (size of the largest power supply in the power stack) and compare
the requirement with the available power in the power stack.
6. Off-lining power supplies are supported but it is not automatic.

20. Cisco IOS has the necessary commands to manage the power supplies and administrator
intervention is required due to the multiple use cases that can be derived. Cisco IOS has multiple
warning messages to prevent unbalancing the power stack.
Recommendation is to analyze the deployment to make sure that turning off a power supply
would not break any of the rules or recommendations stated earlier such as filling in all power
supply slot A before installing a power supply in slot B; turning off a power supply would have a
similar effect of removing the power supply from.
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