Cabletron Systems manual 2-33, Using the EMM-E6 Hub View, To change a port’s topology status

Using the EMM-E6 Hub View

Older versions of EMM-E6 firmware (revision levels previous to 2.00.16) use slightly

TIP different definitions of station and trunk status: station ports are defined as those which are detecting no source addresses or only a single source address; trunk ports are those detecting two or more.

If you are running an older version of firmware, and all of the ports in your EMM-E6-controlled hub happen to be serving as station ports at the time you enable Source Address Locking — either because they are connected to a single node, or because users connected to that port happen not to be on the network at the time Source Address Locking is enabled — you may end up locking out devices or nodes that should have access. To avoid this, you may want to force key ports to trunk status, since trunk ports are unaffected by Source Address Locking.

If you are running a newer version of firmware, you can protect ports from being locked by forcing them to an Unsecurable status; see Chapter 7, Security, for details. Note, too, that any port with more than 35 source addresses in its source address table is automatically considered to be unsecurable.

If you have any questions about which definitions your version of firmware employs, or if you would like information about upgrading your EMM-E6 firmware, contact the Cabletron Systems Global Call Center. Also, see Chapter 6, Source Addressing, and Chapter 7, Security, for more information about station and trunk status.

To change a port’s topology status:

1.Click mouse button 3 on the appropriate Port Status box to open the Port menu.

2.Drag down to Trunk Type, then right to Force Trunk or Not Forced, and release.

NOTE

There are three ways to view a port’s current topology status before making changes to its trunk type: check the Port Status window, which provides both the current number of active users and the current topology status; check the port’s Source Address List, which lists the MAC address of each active user; or use the Topology port display form.

Once Source Address Locking is enabled, a port’s topology state (trunk or station) cannot be changed, even by using the option described above. Once Source Address Locking is disabled, a port will respond to a change in topology status (either one forced by the Trunk Type option above, or one that occurs naturally due to a change in the number of active source addresses) at the beginning of the next Source Address Aging Time cycle.

Managing the Hub 2-33