Dlink to 3Com for RSTP & Redundancy

[riley3]

Hello,
We need some advice regarding RSTP and redundancy. We’ve been using Dlink’s DES 3226L switches but been having a difficult time with the RSTP and multiple redundant paths coming into the same switch. We’ re planning on changing to 3Com switches this week to see if that will solve our problem and we wanted to get some advice before proceeding.

We have three remote locations using FSO lasers to communicate back to a central location. At each location there is also a Solectek radio for backup. All switches are configured for RSTP with the FSO ports having a lower cost and priority than the radio ports. Up until now we only had a single redundant leg installed and it worked ok. When the weather was bad and foggy the FSO would stop and the radio would take over after a few seconds and cut back to the FSO later when the weather improved. However, after installing a second redundant leg this past week (and a third one planned) the network locks up after about 5-6 minutes.

We were thinking our problem was with the quality of switch we are using rather than the multiple redundant paths coming into the same central switch. Can someone help us on whether or not we need to change switches or find a different way to deal with the redundancy, like more switches, one for each path? I realize this is not a Dlink forum but thought someone may be able to help?

 

[riley3]

Apparently this configuration is a lot more complicated than we thought. We're in the process of setting up four switches (2 3Com's and 2 Dlink's) here in the shop to see if we can duplicate the problem we had at the customer's location. We'll then reconfigure with some modifications to the costs and priorities to see if that changes things. Hopefully this may give us a little more information as to whether or not you can have multiple redundant paths coming into the same switch.