A virtual chassis is a scalable switch composed of multiple interconnected EX4200 switches. Up to ten EX4200 switches can be interconnected as a Virtual Chassis (VC) using Virtual Chassis Cables (VCP). Each member switch can be cabled to one or two other member switches, using either the dedicated Virtual Chassis Ports (VCP) on the rear panel or an uplink port that has been set as a VCP.  The members that are cabled together are considered neighbor members.

The mastership priorities and member ID's are assigned by the software by default but can be configured manually.  By default the first member will be member ID=0.  When you interconnect the switches with the dedicated Virtual Chassis Port (VCP) cables and power on the switches, the VCPs are operational and the mastership priorities and member IDs are assigned by the software. The role and member ID of the member switches  are displayed on the front-panel LCD (see user manual for member election).

To display the role and member ID assignments using the CLI, issue the "show virtual-chassis status" command and the "show chassis lcd" command which lists the member switches interconnected as a virtual chassis with the member IDs:

show virtual-chassis status command:

user@switch> show virtual-chassis status


                                       Mastership             Neighbor List 



                                                                                                                         

This output verifies that three EX 4200 switches have been interconnected as a virtual chassis using their dedicated VCPs. The display shows which of the VCPs is connected to which neighbor. The first port (vcp-0) of member 0 is connected to member 1 and the second port of member 0 (vcp-1) is connected to member 2. The FPC slots for EX-series switches are the same as the member IDs.

The Mastership Priority values indicate that the master and backup members have been explicitly configured, because they are not using the default value (128).

Output Fields

Virtual Chassis ID - Assigned ID that applies to the entire virtual chassis configuration.

Member ID - Assigned member ID and FPC slot (from 0 through 9).

Status -    

• For a non-provisioned configuration:
  
  1. Prsnt for a member that is currently connected to the virtual chassis.
  2. NotPrsnt for a member ID that has been assigned but is not currently connected.


• For a pre-provisioned configuration:
  
  1. Prsnt for a member that is specified in the preprovisioned configuration file and is currently connected to the virtual chassis.
  2. Unprvsnd for a member that is interconnected with the virtual chassis, but is not specified in the preprovisioned configuration file.

Serial No - Serial number of the member switch.

Model - Model number of the member switch.

Mastership Priority - Mastership priority value of the member switch.

Role - Role of the member switch.

Neighbor List - Member ID of the neighbor member to which this member’s VCP interface is connected.

show chassis lcd command :

user@switch>show chassis lcd
FPM Display contents for slot: 1
    00:BK fpc1
    LED:SPD ALARM 00
FPM Display contents for slot: 2
    01:RE fpc2
    LED:SPD ALARM 00
FPM Display contents for slot: 3
    02:LC fpc3
    LED:SPD ALARM 0