2910Al spanning tree and CX4

[cliffha]

Hi

I have 5 2910Al switches witch i want to connect in a loop, ensuring that my network is still running if one switch breaks down.

I have my 5 switches connect with cx4 kits, but not completing the loop.I have read in the manual that you are supposed to connect the switches from port a1 to a1, and b1 to b1. But when i need to connect switch 1 to 5, then i need to connect a1 to b1, is that a problem?

I can see that spanning tree is enabled, but do I need to change it to use another protocol for best performance?At the moment it is running as mstp.

Do I need to change anything else than spanning tree, and VLan tagging?

[Fred_Mancen_1]

I don't think that the port ID is a problem in this case; I would try to do the way you mentioned.

Regarding the protocols, you are using the correct ones: MSTP and VLAN.

I don't see anything else to do since you are using MSTP, which works with VLAN mapping - and you are already done.

Regards.

[Richard Litchfield]

Fred is correct, the port ID makes no difference at all. Just enable spanning tree on each switch, and it will automatically block one of the ports so that there is not a loop.

You can control which switch and port blocks if you really want to, but it sounds like that may be unccessary.