Spanning Tree And Redundant Connectivity; Accelerated Aging To Retain Connectivity - Cisco Catalyst 3560-X Software Configuration Manual

Chapter 1 Configuring STP

Spanning Tree and Redundant Connectivity

You can create a redundant backbone with spanning tree by connecting two switch interfaces to another
device or to two different devices, as shown in
interface but enables it if the other one fails. If one link is high-speed and the other is low-speed, the
low-speed link is always disabled. If the speeds are the same, the port priority and port ID are added
together, and spanning tree disables the link with the lowest value.
Figure 1-4
You can also create redundant links between switches by using EtherChannel groups. For more
information, see
Spanning-Tree Address Management
IEEE 802.1D specifies 17 multicast addresses, ranging from 0x00180C2000000 to 0x0180C2000010, to
be used by different bridge protocols. These addresses are static addresses that cannot be removed.
Regardless of the spanning-tree state, each switch in the stack receives but does not forward packets
destined for addresses between 0x0180C2000000 and 0x0180C200000F.
If spanning tree is enabled, the CPU on the switch or on each switch in the stack receives packets
destined for 0x0180C2000000 and 0x0180C2000010. If spanning tree is disabled, the switch or each
switch in the stack forwards those packets as unknown multicast addresses.

Accelerated Aging to Retain Connectivity

The default for aging dynamic addresses is 5 minutes, the default setting of the mac address-table
aging-time global configuration command. However, a spanning-tree reconfiguration can cause many
station locations to change. Because these stations could be unreachable for 5 minutes or more during a
reconfiguration, the address-aging time is accelerated so that station addresses can be dropped from the
address table and then relearned. The accelerated aging is the same as the forward-delay parameter value
(spanning-tree vlan vlan-id forward-time seconds global configuration command) when the spanning
tree reconfigures.
Because each VLAN is a separate spanning-tree instance, the switch accelerates aging on a per-VLAN
basis. A spanning-tree reconfiguration on one VLAN can cause the dynamic addresses learned on that
VLAN to be subject to accelerated aging. Dynamic addresses on other VLANs can be unaffected and
remain subject to the aging interval entered for the switch.
OL-25303-03
Spanning Tree and Redundant Connectivity
Active link
Blocked link
Chapter 1, "Configuring EtherChannels and Link-State Tracking."
Catalyst 3750-X and 3560-X Switch Software Configuration Guide
Understanding Spanning-Tree Features
Figure 1-4. Spanning tree automatically disables one
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