I'm steadily improving the network from little/no redundancy to
complete redundancy. I have to pick my budget battles right now and
frankly there are a few other places I'd rather improve first.
Fortunately all my server switches are linked via ether-channel.
Although no matter how many links in your bundle, if you lose your STP
root, then you are going to have a re-convergence. I had a core switch
roll over on me due to a "parity error" (according to TAC) a few
months ago. Things recovered really well, but I haven't implemented
the voice yet so I didn't have anything quite that latency dependent
at the time.

On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 8:38 PM, Jay Taylor <[email protected]> wrote:
> Any chance of just doubling your links for each path? That would only
> require 2 extra pairs of fiber to each IDF rather than uplinking each
> switch. But then again, that 1 ping missed with RSTP was with default timers
> and I'm sure you could trim that down.
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 9:32 PM, Michael Smith <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> Well you guys are right. I've always dealt with switches that have been
>> etherchannelled to another switch so I never really dealt with switches that
>> are single linked like that. I just don't know the reason why anybody
>> wouldn't etherchannel their switches together. Hey I guess you live and you
>> learn!
>>
>>
>>
>> > Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2011 20:28:21 -0600
>> > Subject: Re: [OSL | CCIE_RS] Rapid Spanning Tree convergence times
>> > From: [email protected]
>> > To: [email protected]
>> > CC: [email protected]; [email protected]
>> >
>> > Right because in my situation one of the links to the cores is going
>> > to be in blocking state. I don't see any way around that.
>> >
>> > On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 8:25 PM, Jay Taylor <[email protected]> wrote:
>> > > Even with HSRP and sub-second hellos you could lose pings depending on
>> > > how
>> > > STP needed to converge.
>> > >
>> > > On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 9:24 PM, Michael Smith <[email protected]>
>> > > wrote:
>> > >>
>> > >> Well I'm talking as far as the VOIP phones go. They obviously need a
>> > >> gateway and to not miss any pings you can always turn on HSRP.
>> > >> I'm not saying HSRP has anything to do with spanning tree. Just
>> > >> thinking
>> > >> about the fact of not losing any pings.
>> > >>
>> > >>
>> > >>
>> > >> ________________________________
>> > >> Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2011 21:05:04 -0500
>> > >> Subject: Re: [OSL | CCIE_RS] Rapid Spanning Tree convergence times
>> > >> From: [email protected]
>> > >> To: [email protected]
>> > >> CC: [email protected]; [email protected]
>> > >>
>> > >> Maybe I'm missing something but how can HSRP (or first hop redundancy
>> > >> protocol) replace STP/Etherchannel? Even if 2 of the Catalyst
>> > >> switches in
>> > >> that topology were L3 gateways and ran HSRP you still need to deal
>> > >> with the
>> > >> L2 loop that exists.
>> > >>
>> > >>
>> > >> On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 8:50 PM, [email protected]
>> > >> <[email protected]>
>> > >> wrote:
>> > >>
>> > >> Well if yor timers are that bad for VOIP you can always use hsrp if
>> > >> you
>> > >> don't want to use the etherchannel option. You can tune hsrp down to
>> > >> milliseconds if you wanted to. Of course your distribution switches
>> > >> need to
>> > >> support an enhanced IOS image
>> > >>
>> > >> Sent from my Verizon Wireless Phone
>> > >>
>> > >> ----- Reply message -----
>> > >> From: "Jay Taylor" <[email protected]>
>> > >> Date: Wed, Mar 9, 2011 7:57 pm
>> > >> Subject: [OSL | CCIE_RS] Rapid Spanning Tree convergence times
>> > >> To: "marc abel" <[email protected]>
>> > >> Cc: <[email protected]>
>> > >>
>> > >>
>> > >> Enable portfast on the host ports and you'll see a much quicker
>> > >> transition.
>> > >> Just labbed this up and with portfast enabled I lost a single ping
>> > >> during
>> > >> the failover. Without it enabled I lost 12.
>> > >>
>> > >> For the VoIP question - in production I'd recommend building with
>> > >> Etherchannels just so STP never needs to converge.
>> > >>
>> > >>
>> > >> On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 5:41 PM, marc abel <[email protected]> wrote:
>> > >>
>> > >> > I have 4 switches connected in a loop.
>> > >> >
>> > >> > Cat1-------------Cat2
>> > >> >  |                   |
>> > >> >  |                   |
>> > >> > Cat3----------Cat4
>> > >> >
>> > >> >
>> > >> > Cat 1 is the root, Cat 2 is the secondary root. All the switches
>> > >> > are
>> > >> > set to RPVSTP and I have confirmed that show spanning-tree shows
>> > >> > RSTP
>> > >> > as the protocol. Cat 4 shows it's interface to cat3 as it's root
>> > >> > port
>> > >> > and the interface to Cat3 as the Alternate. I have not tuned any
>> > >> > timers.
>> > >> >
>> > >> > What should be the convergence time in this situation?
>> > >> >
>> > >> > If I run a ping from a host attached to Cat4 to a host attached to
>> > >> > Cat1 and then I shut the Cat1-Cat3 interface (on the Cat1 side) it
>> > >> > takes about 32 seconds before pings pick back up. I thought RSTP
>> > >> > was
>> > >> > supposed to converge in about 6 seconds?
>> > >> >
>> > >> > Another question, what is the fastest recovery time we can tune
>> > >> > down
>> > >> > to from RSTP? How do others tune this for VOIP? I know that I can
>> > >> > get
>> > >> > sub second convergence from OSPF but not all my switches have an
>> > >> > appropriate image to run ospf.
>> > >> >
>> > >> >
>> > >> > Thanks in advance.
>> > >> >
>> > >> > Marc
>> > >> > _______________________________________________
>> > >> > For more information regarding industry leading CCIE Lab training,
>> > >> > please
>> > >> > visit www.ipexpert.com
>> > >> >
>> > >> _______________________________________________
>> > >> For more information regarding industry leading CCIE Lab training,
>> > >> please
>> > >> visit www.ipexpert.com
>> > >>
>> > >>
>> > >>
>> > >>
>> > >
>> > >
>
>
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