Switch-Interconnect Best Practices

[willholt89]

Hi Everyone,

I currently have three HP Procure Switches. 2x 251048 and 1x 350048.

The command switch is a 251048. I would like to connect the other two switches to this without causing broadcast storms and ensuring packet routing doesn't incur any ill effects.

I have not really connected switches together before so I was wondering if anyone could advise me on the best way to interconnect the switches without causing any network disruptions.

Cheers

Will

[paulgear · Accepted solution]

Hi Will,

When you say "command switch" do you mean that you have enabled stacking?  Or is it just that the 2510-48 is your current central switch?

The main precaution you should take is setting the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) priorities.  If your 2510-48 is your core switch, you should set it to priority 0.  If another is going to be a second core switch, then usually that would be set to the next lowest priority.  In a three-switch environment that should be all you need to do to prevent loops.  Check also that you're running RSTP rather than plain STP.

If you have VLANs configured, then by far the easiest option is to enable GVRP on all switches to ensure the VLANs are automatically tagged on the switch-to-switch links.

Check the relevant manuals for your switch models for more details on STP and GVRP.