VLANs and spanning tree

[bertieuk]

I just need to clarify an idea.

I have Dell Powerconnect 5324 switches in several different cabinets connecting LAN, WAN and DMZ subnets. I wanna use VLANs to make more efficient use of ports but also have resilience.

From what i understand I can create box standard untagged vlans and connect each together use standard Ethernet cables.

Or I can use tagged frames with a trunk port and assign all vlans to pass over this port.

What happens with Spanning Tree over the vlan trunk port? Will multiple common paths still be detected using spanning tree and appropriate action taken by the switch?
Can the trunk port be a port aggregate of more then one physical port?

Thank
Si

 

[vipergg]

it depends on your equipment , most makers use a single spanning tree instance for all vlans. Cisco uses PVST or a spanning tree instance for each vlan . If your equipment is capable you can trunk and etherchannel across the same links.Not familiar with Dell but with cisco you can aggregate up to 8 ports in a single etherchannel and trunk across all of them . Take a look at the documentation for compatability.