STP recommendations

[makemorebeer]

I've got a procurve infrastructure on my network and we are trying to start implimenting redundant links. here is the deal. i've got a remote site that has three switchs connected as follows

wirelessA---------switch1------switch2
|
|------switch3-----wirelessB

Switch1 is directly connected to switch2 and switch3. the wirelessb and wirelessa connections go to seperate switches in the same network which all go to our root core switch. my first question is should the default settings work for procurve RSTP, as long as i set the root(core) switch to a 0 priority? if not why, and what are the recommended ways of doing this.

i appreciate any help anyone can offer me. i'm a bit new to switching topologies.

 

[cajuntank]

I'm a little lost on what you are using for the redundancy.
Are you creating a redundant link via the wireless in bridge mode?
What model switches do you have?
Is this just a flat layer 2 network or do you have any layer 3 routing happening for VLANs?

 

[makemorebeer]

we've got one wireless running from one switch, and one wireless from another switch. these two switches are directly connect and then go across individual wireless links to different switches that all connect back to our core. the network core switch is L3. and yes as far as i know both wireless links are in bridge mode. one's third party, and the other is Cisco 1400's. the switches over there i beleive are all 2524's. all switches are procurve.

 

[cajuntank]

Ok... still not 100% on if you have nothing but wireless making trunk connections back to your core or what, been a long day. But basically you are on the right path in your RSTP and defining priority 0 to your core and then letting the rest happen automatically through port ID, path and link costs, etc... Just watch out in your design if you have multiple VLANs since:

"STP and RSTP can disrupt VLAN configurations since both protocols block physical redundant links without evaluating connections between virtual broadcast domains." *
*(taken from the Procurve AEF Student Guide)

Make sure you assign all VLANs to all redundant links.

 

[makemorebeer]

after spending a little more time looking into this i've come across another issue. the Vlans, are fine. we've got a few but they are not affected by this. however extending out form the core, we've got 4000M switches in which i can not find anything about RSTP. how would this affect my current setup? you are correct. there are no physical lines from our remote site. just two wireless links. I was concerned becasue the two wireless links are on different switches and i was not sure if this would cause an issue or not. would this be an instance where i'd want to use spanning groups isntead of default spanning tree?

 

[cajuntank]

According to the manual, all HP switches support STP and RSTP. You can only do "spanning groups", if I think what you're asking, through Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol (MSTP) which is what was developed for VLANs, and not all switches support MSTP. Your switch was not one listed in the charts at all, so I can't answer if it is or not. You could probably ping Procurve's online tech support and inquire that about your switch.

 

[makemorebeer]

Where are you finding these charts you are referring to? can i get a link? yeah the one in question is a procurve 4000m (J4121A). i did a find on the manual for it and couldn't find any instances of "rstp" in the text. yeah i'm going to try and not get involved in the MSTP arena. we're not doing enough with Vlans to make it worthwhile anyway.

 

[cajuntank]

The charts I reference are taken from the Procurve AEF Student Guide...that's why you might want to ping HP Procurve online tech support and ask them about your switch model and STP/RSTP... it's free.