Rapid Pvst+ Interoperation With Legacy 802.1D Stp - Cisco nexus 5000 series Cli Configuration Manual

Information About Rapid PVST+
S e n d f e e d b a c k t o n x 5 0 0 0 - d o c f e e d b a c k @ c i s c o . c o m
Port Priority
If a loop occurs and multiple ports have the same path cost, Rapid PVST+ considers the port priority
when selecting which LAN port to put into the forwarding state. You can assign lower priority values to
LAN ports that you want Rapid PVST+ to select first and higher priority values to LAN ports that you
want Rapid PVST+ to select last.
If all LAN ports have the same priority value, Rapid PVST+ puts the LAN port with the lowest LAN
port number in the forwarding state and blocks other LAN ports. The possible priority range is from 0
through 224 (the default is128), configurable in increments of 32. software uses the port priority value
when the LAN port is configured as an access port and uses VLAN port priority values when the LAN
port is configured as a trunk port.
Rapid PVST+ and IEEE 802.1Q Trunks
802.1Q trunks impose some limitations on the STP strategy for a network. In a network of Cisco
switches connected through 802.1Q trunks, the switches maintain one instance of STP for each VLAN
allowed on the trunks. However, non-Cisco 802.1Q switches maintain only one instance of STP for all
VLANs allowed on the trunks.
When you connect a Cisco switch to a non-Cisco switch through an 802.1Q trunk, the Cisco switch
combines the STP instance of the 802.1Q VLAN of the trunk with the STP instance of the non-Cisco
802.1Q switch. However, all per-VLAN STP information that is maintained by Cisco switches is
separated by a cloud of non-Cisco 802.1Q switches. The non-Cisco 802.1Q cloud that separates the
Cisco switches is treated as a single trunk link between the switches.

Rapid PVST+ Interoperation with Legacy 802.1D STP

Rapid PVST+ can interoperate with switches that are running the legacy 802.1D protocol. The switch
knows that it is interoperating with equipment running 802.1D when it receives a BPDU version 0. The
BPDUs for Rapid PVST+ are version 2. If the BPDU received is an 802.1w BPDU version 2 with the
proposal flag set, the switch sends an agreement message after all of the other ports are synchronized. If
the BPDU is an 802.1D BPDU version 0, the switch does not set the proposal flag and starts the
forward-delay timer for the port. The new root port requires twice the forward-delay time to transition
to the forwarding state.
The switch interoperates with legacy 802.1D switches as follows:
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Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switch CLI Software Configuration Guide
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Notification—Unlike 802.1D BPDUs, 802.1w does not use TCN BPDUs. However, for
interoperability with 802.1D switches, Cisco NX-OS processes and generates TCN BPDUs.
Acknowledgement—When an 802.1w switch receives a TCN message on a designated port from an
802.1D switch, it replies with an 802.1D configuration BPDU with the TCA bit set. However, if the
TC-while timer (the same as the TC timer in 802.1D) is active on a root port connected to an 802.1D
switch and a configuration BPDU with the TCA set is received, the TC-while timer is reset.
This method of operation is required only for 802.1D switches. The 802.1w BPDUs do not have the
TCA bit set.
Protocol migration—For backward compatibility with 802.1D switches, 802.1w selectively sends
802.1D configuration BPDUs and TCN BPDUs on a per-port basis.
When a port is initialized, the migrate-delay timer is started (specifies the minimum time during
which 802.1w BPDUs are sent), and 802.1w BPDUs are sent. While this timer is active, the switch
processes all BPDUs received on that port and ignores the protocol type.
Chapter 1 Configuring Rapid PVST+
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