General Information
Thursday, 4 May 2023 7:26 AM
• VLSM Test one-to-one feedback today
• Continue practicing VLSM (around 15% of the Final Written Assessment)
• Mid-Sem Skills Assessment one-to-one feedback today
• Today you will complete labs 7a and 8a. Do NOT do these on Packet Tracer.
○ Not all STP configuration commands available in PT.
○ Also, remember your Final Skills Assessments are done on ATC equipment
Tutorial 9 Page 1
Layer 2 Redundancy
Thursday, 4 May 2023 7:28 AM
• Link and hardware redundancy are necessary to increase network availability
• Layer 2 redundancy leading to L2 loops can cause several issues
○ Broadcast Storm
○ Duplicated unicast frames
○ MAC address table instability
• This issues can render a network unavailable within seconds
Tutorial 9 Page 2
STP Concepts
Thursday, 4 May 2023 7:30 AM
• STP will allow you to have redundancy in place, but avoiding L2 redundancy issues
• STP achieves this by blocking alternative paths
• If active path becomes unavailable, STP will unblock an alternative path
• STP follows a 3-step algorithm to determine the active/blocked paths
• 1st Step - Root Bridge Selection
○ Switch with the lowest Bridge ID
○ Bridge ID determined by:
▪ Bridge priority value (32768 by default)
▪ MAC address of the switch
▪ Optional extended ID
• 2nd Step - Root port selection
○ Non-root bridges have one R (root) port
○ R ports forward traffic, i.e. send/receive frames and populate the MAC table
○ The port with the lowest path cost to the root wins the election
○ If 2+ ports have the same path cost to the root, lowest received BID wins
○ If the 2+ ports are connected to the same bridge, lowest received port priority wins
○ If the 2+ ports are connected to ports with equal priority, lowest received interface ID wins
○ What is the cost of a link?
• 3rd Step - Designated and Non-Designated port selection
○ All ports in the root bridge are D (designated) ports
○ D ports forward traffic, i.e. send/receive frames and populate the MAC table
○ Only one D port per link, the other one is either root, or ND (non-designated or alternate)
○ The D port is the port on the switch with the lowest root path cost wins
○ If root path cost is the same for both switches, the switch with the lowest Bridge ID wins the D end
○ ND ports block traffic, i.e. does not send/receive data frames (only forward BPDUs)
• Not 100% clear? watch the STP Demo available on Echo360
• Next week we will do a STP example to solidify these concepts
Tutorial 9 Page 3
STP Versions
Thursday, 4 May 2023 7:32 AM
• PVST is a Cisco proprietary version of standard STP (802.1d)
• PVST builds a STP topology for each VLAN
○ Bridge priority, port-priority and port cost can be customized per VLAN basis
○ This allows for different topologies for different VLANs
○ In turn, this allows load balancing
• Rapid STP (802.1w) is and evolution STP (802.1d) allowing for faster network convergence
• Rapid PVST is the cisco proprietary version of 802.1w
• By default, Cisco 2960 switches run PVST
• By default, Cisco 3650 switches run Rapid PVST
Tutorial 9 Page 4
STP Fine Tuning
Thursday, 4 May 2023 7:47 AM
• We can modify STP default values to control the STP topology
• To manipulate the root bridge selection:
○ Change the bridge priority to something lower than the default
○ Use explicit command (preferred)
• Define a secondary root bridge
○ Change the priority to something lower than the default but higher than the primary
○ Use explicit command (preferred)
• PortFast
○ Used on switchports connected to end hosts to speed access to the network
○ NOT to be used on switchports connected to other switches, hubs or routers
○ A port with PortFast on will still send/receive BPDUs and participate on STP
• BPDU Guard
○ Should be enable on PortFast ports
○ If a BPDU is received, it means there is a switch at the other end
○ The port will be shutdown to protect the STP topology
Tutorial 9 Page 5
