RSTP issue on HP J9145A 2910al-24G

[Wayne_g]

I'm running STP in rapid-pvst mode on a group of 4 switches split between 2 sites. They are setup like this:

Site A                             Site B

swtch1=============switch1

  ||                                       ||

switch2-------------------switch2

The "top" switches at each site are connected via 2 x 1Gb/s fibre links in a trunk. The switches within each site are connected via 2 x 1Gb/s copper in a trunk. The "bottom" switches are connected to each other via a single 1Gb/s fibre link. Site A, switch 1 is STP root.

The problem I'm having is that switch 2, site B is preferring the 1Gb fibre link over the 2Gb copper trunk. I've tried setting the path-cost and priority on that link/port to be very high but has no effect. Is this by design for some reason? Is there any way I can get the switch to prefer the 2Gb trunk over the 1Gb fibre?

[Wayne_g]

I was using the wrong commands. Port 24 is used for the link between the two 'bottom' switches. 

spanning-tree 24 path-cost 30000 -> does not work
spanning-tree instance 1 24 path-cost 30000 -> does not work either

what does work is

spanning-tree port 24 vlan 1 path-cost 30000

So what are the first two commands used for? I still haven't found the working command in any documentation as yet, I found it by accident.

[Richard Brodie_1]

The other commands are for standard (non per-VLAN) spanning tree.