HP 5300XL, 5304XL, 5348XL Spanning Tree (RSTP), Configuring Rapid Reconfiguration

802.1w Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP) 802.1d Spanning Tree Protocol (STP)

Configuring Rapid Reconfiguration Spanning Tree (RSTP)

Configuring Rapid ReconfigurationSpanning Tree (RSTP)

This section describes the operation of the IEEE 802.1w Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP)

Overview

RSTP Feature	Default		Menu	CLI	Web
Viewing the RSTP/STP configuration		n/a	page 13-16	page 13-10	n/a
enable/disable RSTP/STP	disabled		page 13-16	page 13-11	page 13-18
(RSTP is selected as the default protocol)
reconfiguring whole-switch values	Protocol Version: RSTP		page 13-16	page 13-12	n/a
	Force Version:	RSTP-operation
	Switch Priority:	8
	Hello Time:	2 s
	Max Age:	20 s
	Forward Delay:	15 s
reconfiguring per-port values	Path Cost:	depends on port	page 13-16	page 13-14	n/a
		type
	Priority:	8
	Edge Port:	Yes
	Point-to-point:	Force-true
	MCheck:	Yes

As indicated in the manual, the spanning tree protocol is used to ensure that only one active path at a time exists between any two end nodes in the network in which your switch is installed. Multiple paths cause a loop in the network over which broadcast and multicast messages are repeated continuously, which floods the network with traffic creating a broadcast storm.

In networks where there is more than one physical path between any two nodes, enabling spanning tree ensures a single active path between two such nodes by selecting the one most efficient path and blocking the other redun­ dant paths. If a switch or bridge in the path becomes disables, spanning tree activates the necessary blocked segments to create the next most efficient path.

13-7