Request Timed out

[OLARU Dan]

Michael,
about STP configuration:

32768 is the default value of priority - same value on all switches. But if you have a switch that is at the center of your star topology and you want it to be the root bridge of the STP tree, you can set this switch's priority to 16384 and it will become the root bridge during STP elections.

Hth,
Dan

[Michael_373]

If I change the priority on one switch, does it have to be reboot? Do all of them have to be?

[Michael_373]

Can Flow control be activated on meshed ports, If so, do I have to reboot? Do all switches have to have the same flow control?

Thanks again

[Michael_373]

Sorry about writing so much...

I just tested from the CLI of one switch and pinged another switch directly. I get a couple of time out requests. Is this normal from one switch to another?

Thanks again

[Stuart Teo]

Hi Michael,

Since you run the 5300xl with 8.01, I'd strongly suggest that you run RSTP rather than STP. STP has certain deficiencies due to its specification (as opposed to implementation). The RSTP specification fixed some of these deficiencies. RSTP also moves the ports to forwarding mode faster.

Changing the switch priority does not require any switch to reboot. The BPDUs containing the new priority informating will automatically change the network topology.

On choosing the root, the router is normally the best root. Of course I'm talking about the newer switch-routers like the cisco 6509. If your router is not STP capable then you should choose the switch that is connected to the router to be the root switch.

One good thing about RSTP on the 5308 is that it automatically falls back to STP on a per port basis. E.g. cisco routers don't support RSTP so the port connecting the 5308 to the cisco will step down to STP automatically after a few BPDUs.

But these are not hard and fast rules. To fully understand how to design your spanning tree, you should read http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk389/tk621/tk5/tech_protocol_home.html

Read up also on port cost. Of all the spanning trees I've built, I've never tweaked port costs before (but it never hurts to understand how to tweak it, just one more weapon in the arsenal). All I've ever done is to modify the switch priority to force a primary root and a backup root.

[Stuart Teo]

Assigning a port to the mesh or removing a port from the mesh requires rebooting.

If a port is set to AUTO then flow control will be automatically negotiated whether or not that port is a mesh port.

Missing the 1st or 1st two ping(s) when you ping from one switch to another is common. At least for me. I see this on my swithces pretty frequently.