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Re: Procurve Environment MSTP Question

 
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Polak
Occasional Advisor

Procurve Environment MSTP Question

Hi

In our environment we have 2 core switches 5412zl and 6 Edge Switches 2810-48G. The Core Switches are connected over a static LACP trunk with 5 Physical copper links. Each Edge switch is connected with fibre link to each core switch. I enabled spanning tree over the web menu on each switch (inlcuding core). The problem is, that we have some real performance problem in this environment. Sometime it's better sometimes worse. On the switchlog I have intermittent excessive broadcast or packet drop entries. I used a packetsniffer and the result was, that most the times the switches do not switch. Something must bring them into hub modus. So I wonder if everything is configured correctly? I'm confused with the the Spanning tree options available. Do I have to set the Fibre ports from the edge switches to a special edge modus?

best regards

Daniel

 

 

P.S. This thread has been moevd from Switches, Hubs, Modems (Legacy ITRC forum) to ProCurve / ProVision-Based. - Hp Forum Moderator

13 REPLIES 13
Mohieddin Kharnoub
Honored Contributor

Re: Procurve Environment MSTP Question

Hi

I think its better to have MSTP enabled by CLI.

You should configure 2 or more instances if need MSTP, then configure Core1 as ROOT for instace1 and Core2 as ROOT for instance 2.

Example:
Say you have 4 Vlans, and you need configure Core switches in MSTP environment
and you want instance1 to have vlan 1&2
and instance2 to have vlan 3&4

Then you have to configure both core as the following:

Core1:
spanning-tree priority 0
spanning-tree protocol-version MSTP
spanning-tree config-name "MSTP"
spanning-tree config-revision 2
spanning-tree instance 1 vlan 1 2
spanning-tree instance 1 priority 0
spanning-tree instance 2 vlan 3 4
spanning-tree instance 2 priority 1
span

Core2:
spanning-tree priority 1
spanning-tree protocol-version MSTP
spanning-tree config-name "MSTP"
spanning-tree config-revision 2
spanning-tree instance 1 vlan 1 2
spanning-tree instance 1 priority 1
spanning-tree instance 2 vlan 3 4
spanning-tree instance 2 priority 0
span


With this configuration you are load balancing on uplinks from each edge to both Cores on Vlan basis.

Good Luck !!!
Science for Everyone
Polak
Occasional Advisor

Re: Procurve Environment MSTP Question

Is there a chance to do it without using MSTP? I don't want to configure to much things.
Matt Hobbs
Honored Contributor

Re: Procurve Environment MSTP Question

If you haven't done so already, I would strongly recommend you update to K.12.25:

http://www.hp.com/rnd/software/j86921225.htm

This supports auto-edge-port by default when you enable spanning-tree. Earlier versions had a bug where when a port would go offline it would generate a topology change. Even earlier versions you manually had to configure your edge-port status. K.12.25 will give you good results by simply enabling spanning-tree with no other configuration. (Although you should at least set the core 5412 as the spanning-tree root).

I wouldn't update to K.12.43 (wait for the next release).

Polak
Occasional Advisor

Re: Procurve Environment MSTP Question

Thanks for reply. Not easy to update the firmware on an active environment with 120 Servers. Can I just configure the edge ports on the core? Anything else to configure on the edge switches?
Matt Hobbs
Honored Contributor

Re: Procurve Environment MSTP Question

What firmware revisions are you currently running? I'll try and see what the optimal settings are for the versions you're running.
Polak
Occasional Advisor

Re: Procurve Environment MSTP Question

We are using Version 12.14.
Polak
Occasional Advisor

Re: Procurve Environment MSTP Question

Here again with the Visio overview.
Matt Hobbs
Honored Contributor
Solution

Re: Procurve Environment MSTP Question

For your 5400's running K.12.14 you will need to set the edge-ports manually to prevent unnecessary Topology Changes occurring.

Edge-ports are those with PC's or Servers attached. Basically anything that is not another switch.

e.g. 'spanning-tree a1-a20 admin-edge-port'

K.12.25 onwards has a fix where you do not need to use this command to prevent TC's.

On the 2810's, you should do the same thing, but depending on what firmware version you're running you may only have the 'edge-port' command. If you are running N.11.02 or later there is no need to touch anything apart from just enabling spanning-tree.

On your 5412's, you need to select one as the spanning-tree root, and then use the 'spanning-tree priority <0-15>' command. I would select 1 for your root, and 2 for the other 5412.

Leave the 2810's at the default which is 8.

Polak
Occasional Advisor

Re: Procurve Environment MSTP Question

Thanks for your help. I managed to update the FW on both, the core and edge switches. So the edge port settings are now OK. I have to check the root settings, because one of the edge's acts now as a root.
I wonder why there is almost nothing written in the manual about the root settings.
Polak
Occasional Advisor

Re: Procurve Environment MSTP Question

I'm not able to change the root settings on the core switches. spanning-tree command is unknown in cli. One of the edge switches is now the root. The traffic from core1 is no forwarded over the root switch to the core 2 instead of the trunk between the core switches. (See show span attachment)
Matt Hobbs
Honored Contributor

Re: Procurve Environment MSTP Question

5400# config
5400(config)# spanning-tree priority 1

Polak
Occasional Advisor

Re: Procurve Environment MSTP Question

Thanks Matt, you're great!
Matt Hobbs
Honored Contributor

Re: Procurve Environment MSTP Question

You're welcome.