Stacking combines multiple stacking-capable switches into one logical switch. Their upstream and downstream devices consider them as one switch. This technology provides high network reliability and forwarding performance, while simplifying network management:
High reliability: Member switches in a stack work in redundancy mode. Link redundancy can also be implemented between member switches through inter-device link aggregation.
High scalability: You can increase ports, bandwidth, and processing capacity of a stack by simply adding member switches to the stack. Member switches can join or leave the stack without affecting other member switches. New switches automatically synchronize the configuration file and system software version with the master switch.
Simplified configuration and management: You can log in to a stack from any member switch to manage and configure all member switches in the stack. In addition, complicated Layer 2 ring protection protocols or Layer 3 protection switching protocols are not required after switches set up a stack; therefore, the network configuration is much simpler.
Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) integrates multiple routing devices into a virtual routing device, and the IP address of the virtual routing device is used as the default gateway address to communicate with external networks. When the gateway fails, VRRP can select a new gateway to transmit data traffic, ensuring network reliability. On a multicast or broadcast LAN such as an Ethernet network, VRRP can still provide highly reliable default links when the gateway fails. This prevents network interruptions caused by single link failures without changing the configurations of hosts and gateway.
Stacking and VRRP have their own advantages. Select them based on networking and service requirements.
https://support.huawei.com/enterprise/en/doc/EDOC1000091883/344c2481/which-one-between-vrrp-and-stacking-is-better
