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I need assistance with a design. I am trying to connect a pair of Cisco 9300 stacks as access layer switches to a pair of Cisco 9500 switches that are configured as a stackwise pair.

This is a large facility and we are trying to create redundancy into the design.

I've been told by a VAR that we can't connect the 9300 stack to the 9500 virtual stack other than directly to one switch or the other. I need the redundancy of connecting the 9300 stack to each 9500 using LACP or another option. I don't have the 9500's yet so I can't test my theory.

Our 9500 virtual stack is tying two offices together via 6 pairs of 10G fiber. Each office terminates a redundant wireless but will serve as the sites L3 gateway, so we need a virtual gateway that serves both offices in case of a failure. The wireless links are routed and come from our HQ across railroad tracks.

In Cisco's 9500 virtual stackwise docs it shows the traditional 3 tier Core-Dist-Access with the Access switch using LACP or another protocol connected to each of the 9500 stackwise distro switches.

So I'm a bit confused as to what switch they are using for access if the 9300's don't support LACP to a pair of 9500'using stackwise virtual.

Any insight would be great.

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    You should provide a meaningful diagram of your suggested design and specific model numbers if you want more specific answers but in general, if the switches in question support LACP then I don't see why you could not use LACP links between the core/dist and access switches. I think they assumed you meant that you wanted the 9300 model switches to 'join' the stack of the 9500 switches via a single management plane.
    – FrameHowitzer
    Commented Jul 29 at 21:43
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    The Catalyst 9500 series supports MEC so you should be able to do LACP via multiple members in a stack to separate switches of any brand/type that support standard LACP. Or if you want, you can stack the 9300 model switches as well and do LACP across the 9300 stack members.
    – FrameHowitzer
    Commented Jul 29 at 21:53

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You can indeed connect a pair of Cisco 9300 stacks as access layer switches to a pair of Cisco 9500 switches configured as a StackWise Virtual (SVL) pair, using LACP for redundancy. The information provided by the VAR may be incorrect or misunderstood.

In a StackWise Virtual configuration, the two 9500 switches are logically one switch, so you can connect the 9300 stack to both 9500 switches using LACP. This setup allows for redundancy because if one 9500 switch fails, the other can still maintain the connection.

Cisco’s documentation does support the traditional 3-tier architecture (Core-Dist-Access) with access switches, like the 9300s, connected to each 9500 in a StackWise Virtual configuration using LACP or similar protocols. This approach is standard for ensuring redundancy and high availability in large network environments.

Therefore, your plan to connect the 9300 stack to both 9500 switches using LACP should work as expected, providing the redundancy you need.

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