Patent ID: 8098571

Claim:
A multi-layer stack switch system comprising a plurality of stack switches enabling the multi-layer stack switch system to emulate a single switching device, the plurality of stack switches comprising: one or more managed stack switches, wherein each of the one or more managed stack switches functions independently as an individual module and is adapted to transmit supervision messages as keep-alive indications, to invoke processes to verify an integrity of one or more of the plurality of stack switches, and to initiate actions to correct and update stack topology and stack element information to one or more of the plurality of stack switches, and a primary master stack switch adapted to automatically transmit a supervision suspension message to temporarily prevent the one or more of the plurality of managed stack switches from expecting supervision messages from other stack switches, wherein the supervision suspension message is transmitted when an error has occurred and the primary master stack switch is preparing a postmortem file in anticipation of a shut-down and re-boot; wherein the supervision suspension message is automatically rescinded by the primary master after it completes the preparation of a postmortem file.